Shubha Ghosh
Professor of Law
Associate Director, INSITE
University of Wisconsin, Madison
GOALS FOR PRESENTATION
 Background
 Major Issues
 Policy Concerns
8/6/2009
Presentation at CISC, NUI-Galway
2
My Background
 PhD in Economics from Michigan and JD from
Stanford
 Legal policy related to regulation of marketplace and
innovation policy
 Law school teaching for thirteen years
 Publications in the area of intellectual property theory
and policy, legal theory, and institutions
8/6/2009
Presentation at CISC, NUI-Galway
3
University of Wisconsin, Madison
 Flagship of Wisconsin system, founded in 1848
 13 four year universities in system
 Public university
 Less than 40 % funds from state
 20 schools
 Nearly 40,000 students at undergraduate, graduate and
professional schools
 2054 faculty
 $ 913m in research expenditures in 06-07
 #5 in nation for federally funded research
 # 1 in non-federally funded research
 #2 in total research expenditures
8/6/2009
Presentation at CISC, NUI-Galway
4
Breakdown of research
expenditure
 Sources of research expenditures at university (06-07
AY)
 62.2 % federal grants/contracts
 25.2 % gifts and endowments
 3.5 % revolving funds
 9.0 % state taxes
8/6/2009
Presentation at CISC, NUI-Galway
5
Research Expenditures by School
 Medicine and Public Health: 31 %
 Graduate School: 18.5 %
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Letters and Sciences: 15 %
Agricultural and Life Sciences: 14.6 %
Engineering: 9.4 %
Other units: Education, Veterinary Medicine,
Pharmacy, Business, Environmental Studies, Law,
Human Ecology
8/6/2009
Presentation at CISC, NUI-Galway
6
The Wisconsin Idea
 President Van Hise in
1904
 Progressive Political
tradition
 Boundaries of State are
the boundaries of the
University
8/6/2009
Presentation at CISC, NUI-Galway
7
Wisconsin Alumni Research
Foundation (WARF)
 Established in 1925
 Professor Harry Steenbock and Vitamin D
 Warfarin in 1941
 Since 1925
 Over 1900 patents
 Over $ 900m to UW-Madison
 Endowment of $ 2 billion
 Licensing of technology
 Royalty-free license for academic research
8/6/2009
Presentation at CISC, NUI-Galway
8
WARF Initiatives
 WISys: founded in 2000 to support technology transfer in
UW system
 WiCell: manage stem cell technology
 Awarded NIH contract in 2005 for embryonic stem cell bank
 Start-ups and technology incubator
 Nimblegen
 Tomotherapy
 OpGen Inc
 Third Wave Technologies
 Quintessence
 Neoclone
 Cambria Biosciences
8/6/2009
Presentation at CISC, NUI-Galway
9
Coming Soon (2010)
 WID-MIR
 Wisconsin Institute for Discovery
 Morgridge Institute for Research
 Public-private partnership
 Identify research projects
 Pre-incubator stage
 Legal clinic to support entrepreneurship and
technology transfer
8/6/2009
Presentation at CISC, NUI-Galway
10
Policy Issues regarding ownership
 Intellectual Property
 Patenting of stem cells
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8/6/2009
Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights challenging
three of WARF’s stem cell patents
WARF’s exclusive license to Geron
Patents limited in re-examination procedure and are
currently in litigation
Issue of patenting in biotech and biomedical areas
Broader ethical issues
Presentation at CISC, NUI-Galway
Policy Issues Regarding University
Research
 Role of university
 Foundational versus applied research
 Commercialization, advocacy, and neutrality
 Obligations of a “public university”
 The Wisconsin Idea
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Regional Development
 Silicon Valley and Cambridge as models
 Knowledge spillovers
 Startup environment
 University entrepreneurs
8/6/2009
Presentation at CISC, NUI-Galway
13
Entrepreneurship
 Self-sufficiency and autonomy
 Promote relevance of academic research
 Social mindedness
 Market ethos?
 Decline of government sphere?
 Ideal: social participation and activism
8/6/2009
Presentation at CISC, NUI-Galway
14
Financing
 Before the downturn
 VC financing
 VC in for the short term
 Treatment of inventor
 Angel investors
 After the downturn
 Public-private initiatives?
 Role of the federal government?
8/6/2009
Presentation at CISC, NUI-Galway
15
Start up Figures
 600,000 new companies are started in the United
States each year
 350,000 self funded
 200,000 friend and family
 50,000 angels
 1,200 venture capitalists
8/6/2009
Presentation at CISC, NUI-Galway
16
Financing Ventures
8/6/2009
Presentation at CISC, NUI-Galway
17
Angel Investors
 Increase of networks
 Wisconsin-6 networks in 2004 to 20 in 2008
 Wisconsin Angel Network (WAN)
 Facilitates deal pipeline between angels and entrepreneurs
 Terms have become more complicated but still
generally less onerous than venture capital
terms.
 2007
 57,120 angel deals in U.S. totaling $26 billion
 Wisconsin $147 million in angel investing and 36 deals
 Average deal size is $150,000 to $275,000 for angel groups.
8/6/2009
Presentation at CISC, NUI-Galway
18
VC Funding and Other Sources
 2007
 3,918 deals nationwide
 $30 billion
 Boston & Silicon Valley make up 1,714 of deals
 $14.6 billion
 21 deals in Wisconsin
 $90 million
 Other funding sources
 SBIR/STTR
 Other federal grants
 State government
 Wisconsin Department of Commerce
 State tax credits – Wisconsin Act 255
 Lending
8/6/2009
Presentation at CISC, NUI-Galway
19
My niche
 Intellectual property law and policy
 Transactional view of lawyering
 Lawyering as contributing to value
 Education on social policy issues and institutional
reform
8/6/2009
Presentation at CISC, NUI-Galway
20
The Future?
 University as dynamic institution
 Role of lawyering in creating value
 Networking across boundaries
 Breaking down boundaries in the university
8/6/2009
Presentation at CISC, NUI-Galway
21