I am here today to talk to you about the importance that patents and academic technology transfer play in company formation, job growth, economic development, and ultimately the new products and services that make our world better.

It seems quite appropriate first to quote from Abraham Lincoln, speaking in 1860:

“Next came the patent laws. These began in England in 1624, and in this country with the adoption of our Constitution. Before then any man [might] instantly use what another man had invented, so that the inventor had no special advantage from his own invention. The patent system changed this, secured to the inventor for a limited time exclusive use of his inventions, and thereby added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius in the discovery and production of new and useful things.”