In the 2000-2001 fiscal year, UC Davis-generated inventions scored their largest amount of annual gross revenue ever, according to statistics recently compiled by the University of California's Office of Technology Transfer.

In 2000-2001, UC Davis-sponsored inventions earned about $9.6 million in royalties, with the campus receiving $2.5 million of that parcel. After legal fees are deducted, the majority of the funds are given to the inventors and their department's research programs.

The past year campus discoveries earned about $6.2 million for their right of entry into the commercial marketplace. In 1998-99 campus inventions made $7.3 million, the previous high for UC Davis.

Larry Fox, director of the UC Davis Office of Technology Transfer - which works with businesses that want to license UC Davis products - attributes the gain in part to a major licensing agreement the university has secured for campus research on an Internet fiber optic routing system. The rest is the result of an increasing number of licensing agreements with research and development companies.

But the rise can also be tied to the existence of UC Davis' own technology transfer program, Fox said. The office has been open for two years now, but it's just beginning to see the fruits of its work since the patent process for a single invention can take up to four years.

Previously, the UC Office of Technology Transfer handled all patent and licensing agreements for the university system's campuses. The office still handles licensing for products patented prior to the UC Davis office's opening, Fox explained. But since opening near the corner of Second and D streets downtown, the UC Davis office has been able to play a more active role in securing revenue from companies and seeking new licensing agreements for campus inventions.

"It has everything to do with (the new office)," Fox said. "Previously there was no real good way of monitoring. Now we have a staff to do that."

The local office also has a higher profile among campus researchers than the UCOP office did, he said. Now, researchers might be willing to drop off paperwork or chat up a staff member about an invention on their way to lunch downtown. Previously, for the same personal contact, the scientists would have to go to Oakland.

The campus technology office has a staff of 10, including three intellectual property officers who help market campus inventions and negotiate agreements between researchers and companies.

Five other UC campuses - Berkeley, San Diego, San Francisco, Irvine and Los Angeles - have their own technology transfer offices, said Suzanne Quick, assistant director of the UCOP Technology Transfer Office. According to preliminary figures, the UC system earned $72.9 million in royalties from its campuses' and labs' inventions during the 2000-2001 fiscal year, Quick said. Though its 2000-2001 royalty earnings are not yet available, UCSF typically leads UC campuses in revenue.

The UC Davis office has sent about 75 applications to the U.S. Patent Office, 47 over the past year.

Typically much of UC Davis intellectual property work involves plant breeds, but patents are also forthcoming in fields as diverse as textiles, pet nutrition, highway maintenance equipment, electronics, environmentally friendly pesticides and pharmaceuticals, Fox said.

Despite UC Davis' reputation as a top-flight research school, Fox and his staff must still make sure the technology for which they seek patents is viable for the marketplace. "(The invention) can't be too esoteric or it won't move forward," Fox said. "We are trying to facilitate the transfer of technology to the public for the public's benefit."

More often, however, he said, his office's battle is getting campus researchers to believe that they have invented something noteworthy.

"Older faculty can consider it academic intrusion, but younger faculty members tend to have more of an entrepreneurial spirit," Fox said.

Gang Sun, associate professor of textiles and clothing, said the office fills an important role on campus - finding a path for a researcher's work to be delivered to industry. Several years ago he took his idea for odor-free sports socks to the UCOP technology office.

"They jumped on the idea immediately and began to do work on the patent," he said. "The feedback came almost immediately."

Now Sun is working on a patent application for a textile dyeing process with the UC Davis office.

Fox, himself, has been on both sides of the patenting process before coming to UC Davis.

The former University of Texas professor turned to a career in biotechnology's private sector 20 years ago. He was first in charge of biotechnology at Abbott Laboratories, then the Amoco Corp. and then spun off his unit to create Vysis Inc., which develops and markets products for genomic disease testing.