Michael Straightiff began working as director of the University Patent Foundation yesterday. Straightiff replaced former interim director Miette Michie, who replaced Robert MacWright in 2009.
Mark Crowell, executive director and associate vice president for innovation partnerships and commercialization at the University, was in charge of hiring Straightiff. He said Straightiff is now in charge of a small group of about 14 people managing the University's invention portfolio.
Straightiff said he plans to "coordinate the University's intellectual property and management to maximize the impact of the ground-breaking research done here."
As director of the Patent Foundation, Straightiff will aid faculty conducting research and report their innovations and inventions to the University to see what can be patented and marketed.
Crowell said he hopes Straightiff will make a slight but important change in the Patent Department by shifting the focus from what is patentable to what is marketable.
Straightiff's goals reflect this hope. He said he wanted to ensure research faculty members have the tools, opportunities and relationships necessary to promote their work.
"My goals are two-tiered," Straightiff said. "First and foremost to provide an opportunity for faculty to disclose and improve relationships [between] the faculty and industries. I want to reach out to faculty to make sure we're aware of all the research and once it's on file, what I want is to drive [the research] into the community. So it's both to extract the inventions and then push them out [into the community]."
Straightiff previously worked as the director of biomedical engineering commercialization at Case Western Reserve University. He said his responsibilities there were based on a mostly case-by-case basis, whereas his new responsibilities at the University are broader and more managerial.
"He got great references for his relationships with faculty," Crowell said. "It's very important to us that he establishes and maintains great relationships."
Straightiff did not apply for the position, Crowell said. Crowell's team recruited Straightiff after the company he was working with identified him as promising.
"I've always found it to be particularly interesting to get people who aren't looking, who are doing a good job, but maybe are ready for something bigger and better," Crowell said.
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