Overview Project Examples Start Working With UW TechTransfer’s Digital Ventures Group Digital Ventures’ Areas of Expertise

Digital Ventures’ Areas of Expertise

Training and Education
UW TechTransfer’s Digital Ventures unit assists UW faculty in the broad distribution of instructional material, including educational curricula, course materials, software programs, online courses, web sites, and electronic publications. Departments across campus are continuously engaged in the development of educational tools in a variety of formats. Digital Ventures manages relationships with distributors, publishers, and developers to secure licenses for UW instructional material and thereby support further curriculum development within the University.

Software Licensing Through Commercial Partners
Digital Ventures works with distributors, publishers, and systems integrators to commercialize software and information products developed at the UW. Typical values of transactions are $20,000 to $250,000. Licensing for broad dissemination may take 3 to 12 months to construct and transact, depending on the compatibility of business models, the perceived risks and benefits, and the timing of the opportunity.

End-User Software Licensing 
Digital Ventures offers software end-user licenses to facilitate early distribution and use of University-developed software and information products. Typical values of transactions are free to $25,000. Direct distribution, once rights consolidation has taken place, may begin in a matter of days or weeks. Revenue management and order reporting schemes may take two weeks to six months to establish and make efficient, depending on the time availability and the substantiality of reviews for variations on or departures from existing practices.

Copyright-based Innovations
Digital Ventures works with all forms of copyright expression, from software code to printed pages, and all forms of digital media. The vast majority of intellectual property created and disseminated via UW teaching and research are covered by copyright. 95% of the royalty revenue from UW digital innovations came from copyrighted works.

Digital Media
Digital Ventures collaborates with UW faculty to develop and distribute conventional materials suitable for migration to electronic formats and networks, such as books and CD-ROMs. Digital Ventures also works toward the development of sustainable enterprises, combining products and services to accommodate emerging internet and conventional activity models, such as databases and web content.

Typical values of transactions are free to $2,500. Timelines for information products range from a few weeks to six months. Establishing projects as largely self-contained digital presses is something we hope to make a regular function of our activities in the future. We are seeking University investigators and authors who want to explore and help define this function with us.

Advanced Projects
Digital Ventures coordinates complex projects that involve high-value licensing of significant patent rights, mature, well developed technologies and products, and licensing to startups (both for-profit and nonprofit). Typical values of transactions are $250,000 and up. High-value licensing deals may take one to two years to transact, taking into account market conditions, the budget cycle of the prospective licensee, the diligence required by both organizations, and the complexity of the underlying rights transaction.

Startups
Learn how UW TechTransfer can help with startups based on software, content and digital works.

Distributing Works to Academics

Distributing Works Commercially