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Competitive Service Center (CSC)

Technology Transfer Center (TTC) works closely with each new Client Institute and Center (IC) to assess its unique technology development needs,and to provide the same high quality of support and responsiveness now furnished to existing Clients as well the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Services Available

TTC currently provides a complete array of services to support the technology development needs of NCI and TTC's clients, to help enable their research activities. The TTC through its CSC can offer any or all of the following services to them.

• Assessment and consultation on Employee Invention Reports, which may include conducting a knock-out search for patentability; an analysis of the invention with respect to federal laws, regulations, and Public Health Service (PHS) patent policy; and advice regarding the prosecution of patent applications;
• Guidance on how to handle extramural inventions for which the grantee has declined title;
• Negotiation of technology-development agreements, including Cooperative Research And Development Agreements, Material Transfer Agreements, Clinical Trial Agreements, Confidential Disclosure Agreements, and related agreements;
• Trademark prosecution and maintenance services;
• Tracking of, and reporting on, all IC active cases;
• Training of IC staff in matters of technology development related to their official duties; and
• Serving as liaison to allied offices in PHS, such as the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) Office of Technology Transfer and the NIH Office of the General Counsel.

Customized Services

TTC is happy to accommodate whatever requirements a client might have. Variations on the above services provided to existing clients include:

• TTC services all the technology development needs of the Client;

• TTC performs any and all tasks that happen to arise out of a particular laboratory or program at the IC;
• TTC handles all of a particular class of tasks, such as all Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADA); or
• TTC performs specific, assigned projects on an as-needed basis.

Regardless of the extent of services provided, each Client retains full, existing authority to approve documents and execute agreements. With the exception of trademark-related matters, TTC's services shall be limited to advice and consulting only.

Benefits to the IC

The advantages of using the TTC CSC include the following:

• Efficiency - For most ICs, maintaining an office that can provide the range of services available through TTC requires hiring more staff than the work load would support. Through TTC, an IC can expend less than the cost of a single FTE, yet receive services of a highly trained person backed by a fully resourced office.
• Access to Expertise - On a daily basis, members of TTC consult with each other on a variety of scientific and legal issues. On a weekly basis, TTC gathers for a brown-bag lunch, at which topics of technology development, negotiation strategies, and other matters are discussed. All of this corporate knowledge is available to clients of TTC, without the need for the IC to staff its own office with a complement of lawyers and scientists with various specialities.
• Innovative Products/Services - TTC is continually developing tools that streamline processes and encourage collaborations with industry partners who have, in the past, been unwilling to agree to the unique requirements of federal laboratories.
• Networking - TTC staff routinely keep each other informed of opportunities for collaborations. For example, when a collaborator interested in working on nitroxides approached NCI, the specialist happened to know that one of the Clients also had a project concerning nitroxides. When this information was passed on, the Client had the opportunity to establish an independent CRADA with that collaborator.
• Coordinated Negotiations - Private parties have interactions with multiple ICs, and often the coordination of negotiations is important to protect the IC's interests. Knowing what agreements and terms a company has previously agreed to with other ICs gives the CSC an advantage in negotiations and allows the CSC to expedite the agreement for the client.
• Marketing - TTC exhibits at a variety of scientific and biotechnology conferences and forums, and in so doing, has helped to raise awareness in the private sector of the opportunities for collaborations with NCI and our Clients. TTC also uses its Web site as well as other Internet marketing sites to promote these opportunities.

TTC Initiatives

TTC strives to foster a creative work environment that encourages an exchange of ideas for improving the quality of our technology transfer services. Over the years, TTC has initiated or been substantially involved in a multitude of innovative projects, including the development of:

• The CRADA Letter of Intent, permitting the research portion of a prospective CRADA to begin while negotiations are still ongoing;
• A Network Confidentiality Agreement designed to enable a large number of clinical trial sites to exchange information among themselves and the sponsoring IC;
• The Model Clinical-Trial for use by all ICs in the PHS;
• The Materials-CRADA, permitting the receipt of proprietary or patented materials in exchange for rights to intellectual property created by PHS using those materials (an alternative to negotiating a full CRADA);
• The "Materials Transfer Agreement (MTA) Sourcebook," which is a clause-by-clause manual for negotiating Material Transfer Agreements;
• A variety of informational brochures relating to technology transfer, for the benefit of private industry as well as NIH scientists; and
• A new section on our web site called the "NIH Scientist Corner" which provides updates on technology transfer and related news.