Penn State will become the first university in America to auction off its intellectual property directly, according to Penn Live.
--- # [](https://www.innovation-asset.com/) - [Decipher®](https://www.innovation-asset.com/products-decipher) - [Services](https://www.innovation-asset.com/products/professional-services-0) - [Resources](https://www.innovation-asset.com/resources) - [Blog](https://www.innovation-asset.com/blog) - [About Us](https://www.innovation-asset.com/about) - [Contact Us](https://www.innovation-asset.com/contact) # Innovation Asset Blog # Penn State to auction intellectual property by [Peter Ackerman](https://www.innovation-asset.com/blog/author/peter-ackerman) Pennsylvania State University will become the [first university in America](http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/03/penn_state_to_be_first_univers.html) to auction off its intellectual property directly, according to Penn Live. The university announced early in March that it will auction off exclusive licenses to intellectual property of various kinds to companies interested in acquiring them. The first auction will run from March 31 to April 11, and companies will have their choice of several patents from Penn State's College of Engineering. These patents include one for a vigilance monitoring system that can track the alertness of drivers, a patent for polycrystalline complex-shaped mesoscale components and a new method of treating water for perchlorate contaminants, according to Penn Live. Should the auction be successful, the university will consider auctioning intellectual property from some of its other departments. Don Mothersbaugh, senior technical specialist at Penn State's Office of Technology Management, has been pushing for this project for the past year and a half. "A lot of times we patent something, and then 10 years later, the real world catches up to the technology itself," Mothersbaugh told Penn Live. "Other times we miss the boat, or it's just we haven't found the right partner. And so \[we\] said we have all these patents sitting on the shelf, rather than let them sit there and rot, let's just put them out there."  ### [Peter Ackerman](https://www.innovation-asset.com/blog/author/peter-ackerman) Founder & CEO, Innovation Asset Group, Inc. [March 13, 2014](https://www.innovation-asset.com/blog/penn-state-to-auction-intellectual-property) ### Subscribe to Email Updates ### Introducing Decipher® ### Categories - [Intellectual Property Management (459)](https://www.innovation-asset.com/blog/topic/intellectual-property-management) - [Commercialization and Licensing (210)](https://www.innovation-asset.com/blog/topic/commercialization-and-licensing) - [Invention Disclosure (201)](https://www.innovation-asset.com/blog/topic/invention-disclosure) - [Innovation Strategy (20)](https://www.innovation-asset.com/blog/topic/innovation-strategy) - [Ideas for Good (6)](https://www.innovation-asset.com/blog/topic/ideas-for-good) - [Innovation Team (3)](https://www.innovation-asset.com/blog/topic/innovation-team) ### News Archives - [January 2013 (26)](https://www.innovation-asset.com/blog/archive/2013/01) - [September 2012 (25)](https://www.innovation-asset.com/blog/archive/2012/09) - [October 2012 (22)](https://www.innovation-asset.com/blog/archive/2012/10) - [November 2012 (22)](https://www.innovation-asset.com/blog/archive/2012/11) - [November 2010 (21)](https://www.innovation-asset.com/blog/archive/2010/11) - [February 2011 (21)](https://www.innovation-asset.com/blog/archive/2011/02) - [July 2012 (21)](https://www.innovation-asset.com/blog/archive/2012/07) - [December 2012 (21)](https://www.innovation-asset.com/blog/archive/2012/12) - [January 2012 (20)](https://www.innovation-asset.com/blog/archive/2012/01) - [March 2012 (20)](https://www.innovation-asset.com/blog/archive/2012/03) ##### Portland, Oregon USA ##### © Innovation Asset Group, Inc. ##### [Privacy Policy](https://www.innovation-asset.com/privacy-policy/) | [Terms & Conditions](https://www.innovation-asset.com/terms-and-conditions/) | [Contact Us](https://www.innovation-asset.com/contact/) -