Direct Billing for Licensee Patent Expenses: Save Time and Gain Efficiency for your TTO

Program agenda:

• Understanding direct billing — benefits and potential drawbacks
• Handling pushback from licensees and licensors
• How direct billing can affect state vendor contracts
• Gaining buy-in from your finance department and staff
• How to be “hands-off” but not “knowledge-free” of the invoice’s lifespan
• Communication tips to ensure licensee compliance
• Best practices for evaluating your current billing system and incorporating a direct billing system on a case-by-case basis
• Lessons learned along the way

“Time is money” as the old adage goes.

And that certainly applies when referring to the time TTOs spend acting as an intermediary between their licensees and law firms to manage the billing process for patents and other IP-related matters. Putting the TTO in the middle of this process — as most do — comes with an average of more than 10 touch points per invoice from submission through to payment. That means hours and hours of staff time spent tracking payment status, following up, forwarding, responding to and re-issuing invoices, and logging payments.

There is a rather simple solution: Direct billing. A growing number of TTOs – including Texas Tech University — are making huge efficiency gains by adopting a direct billing system, and it’s being embraced by their law firms and licensees alike.

But it takes a little time and a big dose of communication and planning to gain buy-in and make the switch without losing appropriate controls.

To show you how using a real-world example, we’ve developed this practical program featuring Texas Tech’s Commercialization Director Cameron Smith and the attorney he partnered with in the direct billing effort, K. Lance Anderson of the Austin, TX, office of Dickinson Wright.

During this one-hour session, our team of presenters will detail how Texas Tech created a direct billing system while continuing to support both licensees and the law firm — and saved hundreds of staff hours in the process.

Program Leaders