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634 BURG Technology and Innovation, Vol. 19, pp. 635-637, 2018
the importance of honorary membership of for a member institution. In addition to the many
alumni and students in the WPI chapter in pros mentioned by the panelists, other benefits
stimulating interactions between students, fac- include the opportunity for inclusion in NAI pub-
ulty, and alumni, thus building out the inventor lications including T&I, presentations and national
network. press releases, receipt of exclusive electronic news
• Vikki Hazelwood described the establishment and updates from the NAI, eligibility for leadership
of a new section in the Stevens Institute of Tech- positions within an active chapter, and member dis-
nology faculty activity report, specifically for counts for the NAI annual meetings. More detailed
reporting of and evaluation of entrepreneur- information regarding membership may be found at
ship. This is a great step marking the change http://www.academyofinventors. org/ benefits.asp.
of academic culture to honor invention equally My hope is that those of you who are faculty
with other faculty activities. Her words resonate members and/or administrators at our member insti-
with all of us, “Some of these things hopefully tutions will begin thinking about the needs on your
become part of an institutional culture as own campuses or within your own organizations and
opposed to an individual effort.” Moreover, assess how a new or continuing chapter might best
Vikki notes that student excitement surround- serve those needs, creating truly functional chapters
ing invention has grown exponentially, in large with high impact. My wish is that you will contin-
part due to chapter activities. ually think about the needs and opportunities and
how your chapter might evolve with time. That is, I
CONCLUSION encourage you to customize the design of your chap-
Since the founding of the first NAI chapter at the ter to your own institution’s needs and situation and
University of South Florida in 2010, local chapters fine-tune the design as your organization changes and
have come a long way, and we now have 43 local new opportunities arise. Please use the T&I Chapter
chapters. These chapters showcase the great diversity Spotlight as food for thought and please consider
of the NAI, as they include both public and private contributing your own chapter lessons learned, good
universities, institutions large and small, and chapters and bad, so that we may all benefit. Please know that
ranging from six to over 400 members. In total, NAI the NAI staff and board members are always happy
chapters have inducted over 2,400 inventor members to discuss these topics and/or serve as dot-connec-
who collectively hold over 14,000 patents. tors to the many others who have developed highly
Establishing a local chapter has myriad advantages successful NAI chapters.
ISSN 1949-8241 • E-ISSN 1949-825X
Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.21300/19.3.2018.635
Copyright © 2018 National Academy of Inventors. www.technologyandinnovation.org
1 2
Nicolas Torno and Kimberly A. Macuare
1 Patents and Inventions, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
2 National Academy of Inventors, Tampa, FL, USA
Chapter founded in: June 27, 2017
Number of Chapter Members: 14
Number of collective patents: 423
Fun fact: The trophy awarded to inventors was inspired by
the Cannes Film Festival award.
As a part of the mission of the National Academy of us specifically because we are very much involved in
Inventors® (NAI) to enhance the visibility of tech- defending our inventions through U.S. patents. We
nology and innovation and honor and encourage do a lot of work in the U.S to get many U.S. patents,
academic invention, Technology and Innovation something that has always been part of our strategy,
(T&I) is pleased to announce the inauguration of a and I must say that it has been a winning strategy.
new feature—the NAI Chapter Spotlight, which will Anytime we want to further develop, find licensees, or
showcase best practices and innovative ideas being get some R&D collaboration for our inventions, get-
implemented in NAI chapters around the world. ting U.S. patents can make a huge difference. Because
For our first Chapter Spotlight, we are starting with we were getting these U.S. patents, it made sense for
Institut Pasteur in Paris, France, which just launched us to join the NAI.
its inaugural chapter in June 2017. Head of Patents
and Inventions Nicolas Torno recently sat down with Who gets invited to join the Institut Pasteur
T&I to discuss why Institut Pasteur started a chapter, chapter?
how the new chapter fits into their larger innovation Basically, we decided to have an objective
community, and what invention recognition means approach. We used a database that is able to analyze
to faculty members. a patent portfolio for you, so we decided to take the
whole portfolio for Institut Pasteur containing U.S.
Why start an NAI chapter? patents that have not expired. So, that was one crite-
Although the NAI is not as well known in Europe rion for us, as we didn’t want to go too far in the past.
as in the U.S., it was an interesting opportunity for And then, from all those hundreds and hundreds
_____________________
Accepted: October 15, 2017.
Address correspondence to Nicolas Torno, Associate Vice President Technology Transfer and Industrial Partnership, European Patent Attorney, Head of
Patents and Inventions, Institut Pasteur, 28 rue du Docteur Roux, 75724 Paris cedex 15 - France. Tel: 33 (0)1 45 68 80 93; Fax: 33 (0)1 40 61 30 17.
E-mail: nicolas.torno@pasteur.fr
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