Introduction

Technological innovation is not simply invention, but a process which includes all the steps from the decision to conduct research to the identification and evaluation of opportunities for that research to contribute to social and economic welfare. Scientific discovery is only one piece of a complex process involving the business, legal, regulatory, cultural, and economic issues that define the innovation landscape.

Innovation is therefore a team sport! The team members come from a variety of disparate disciplines. The players include inventors who are typically scientists and engineers; technology transfer professionals who evaluate the commercial relevance of inventions; entrepreneurs or managers who develop business models; and attorneys involved in various aspects of intellectual property (IP) protection. As in any good team, the players need a common understanding of the process, as well as a fluency in the language, if not the methodologies, of their team mates. This is hard to accomplish in the technology commercialization space.