The Center for Technology Transfer and Enterprise Creation (CTTEC) at Carnegie Mellon supports technology transfer by enabling all the phases required to successfully license university research to the business community. CTTEC’s mission is to

  • facilitate and accelerate the transfer of the university’s intellectual assets to the commercial marketplace
  • negotiate and execute commercial technology transfer agreements, including licenses, confidentiality agreements, research use licenses, and material transfer agreements
  • encourage faculty (and student) entrepreneurship and the creation of start-up companies.
  • manage the intellectual assets (patents, copyrights, etc.) of the university
  • ensure CMU’s compliance with relevant federal regulations and reporting requirements, and obligations to sponsors relating to intellectual property

Working with CTTEC involves the following steps:

  1. Invention disclosure submission
  2. Invention disclosure evaluation (including patentability) and market strategy
  3. License negotiation
  4. Enterprise creation