Protecting university research

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Technology transfers, from higher education to business and commercial developments, once focused strongly on obtaining patents for products developed by universities’ research. Today, there are many commercial projects that could benefit from other types of protection, according to Chase Kasper, assistant VP for research and technology transfer at the University of Southern Mississippi. USM has had “a great legacy” and continues to be involved with patented innovations especially in the School of Polymers and High Performance Materials, he said. Intellectual property is patentable and protected work. One example is USM’s Aqua Green in Stone County that is going to be used by the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (GCRL) for research in areas such as culturing oyster spawn to restock offshore reefs. Aqua Green is expected to create special materials for aquaculture. (Source: Mississippi Business Journal 05/12/17) Gulf Coast Note: GCRL is a marine/coastal research and education site in Ocean Springs, Miss., and is a unit of USM’s College of Science and Technology.