The University of Oklahoma is a public research university in Norman, with a health campus in Oklahoma City, whose commercialization path runs through patents, corporate partnerships, and a technology office that has returned licensing income to campus for seven years running.
For a third consecutive year, Oklahoma ranked in the National Academy of Inventors Top 100 U.S. universities granted utility patents, and it is the only university in the state on that list. In fiscal year 2024, 18 faculty across three campuses received 29 U.S. and foreign patents. By April of fiscal year 2025, researchers had filed 61 disclosures, 34 inventors had been issued 11 U.S. utility patents and 12 foreign patents, and four faculty members were developing spinoffs on university intellectual property.
Commercialization runs through the Office of Technology Commercialization, inside the Office of Innovation and Corporate Partnerships. In the last seven years the office has evaluated more than 500 innovations, filed for 350 patents, and returned $23 million in royalty and license income to the university. Since it was created, the office has contributed to 35 startups. One of them, Selexys Pharmaceuticals, was acquired by Novartis in 2016 in a deal valued at up to $665 million.
- Two paths
License to an existing company, or form a startup. The office connects founders to startup resources. The iPath program is the innovator track in the university strategic plan. - Revenue split
35% to inventors, 20% to the originating college with half of that to the department, 20% to a campus Growth Fund, 15% to the technology office, 5% to the campus vice president for research, and 5% to the president’s discretionary fund.
Investors and founders can reach Michael Schade, interim chief innovation officer and interim executive director of the Office of Innovation and Corporate Partnerships, through the technology office.
Learn more about the Office of Technology Commercialization
Learn more about the University of Oklahoma
