Iowa State University president Steven Leath is touting the number of “utility” patents researchers in Ames have earned.
“Iowa State now ranks 70th in the world for universities granted U.S. patents,” Leath says, “the only top 100 school in the state.”
Iowa State University was granted 31 patents in 2014 and tied with the University of South Carolina and the University of Arkansas on the list of top 100 universities around the world granted utility patents. Leath says there’s a wide variety of “technology transfer” involved in those 31 patents.
“Wind power, computer encryption logic, bio-asphault, improved treatments for Parkinson’s,” Leath says, “all last year, so a tremendous scope of what we’ve done.”
The list of top 100 universities granted intellectual property protection by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office was compiled by the National Academy of Inventors and the Intellectual Property Owners Association. Utility patents are granted to researchers and universities that develop new processes, machines or chemical compositions.