Catherine Innes
Director of Tech Transfer Office
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Catherine Innes manages the 12 member Office of Technology Development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is responsible for all aspects of managing and licensing intellectual property owned by the University. Innes' role is to enhance the research mission at Carolina by encouraging investment in innovations and development of new products and services. The office currently manages over 1000 inventions, 1800 pending and issued patents and 250 active license agreements and has over 40 companies formed around its technologies.
Prior to this role, Ms. Innes spent seven years at the University of Washington, where she most recently held the position of Director, Policy and Strategic Initiatives for its technology development office. In that role Ms. Innes developed programs and publications on intellectual property laws, policies and practices related to technology commercialization and coordinated events for entrepreneurs and the venture capital community to increase their interaction with UW's commercialization efforts. Ms. Innes also held positions as Director, Office of Technology Licensing and Copyright Information Officer at the University of Washington.
Prior to joining the University of Washington, Ms. Innes spent six years at the University of California, Berkeley campus and central Office of the President, in software licensing and copyright policy advisor roles. Ms. Innes spent ten years in business development and engineering roles in aerospace and computer industries before joining the field of academic technology transfer. She holds a BS in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the University of California at Berkeley.
Catherine currently serves on the Contracts and Intellectual Property Committee for the Council on Government Relations (COGR) and has previously served on the board of trustees for the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) as Vice President for Communications. She is also active in the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and is a member of the Licensing Executive Society (LES). She is a frequent speaker on intellectual property management and licensing issues at conferences and events throughout the country and internationally.
Her publications include: AUTM Educational Series No. 4: Copyright Protection of Software, Multimedia and Other Works: and Author’s Guide, with Charles C. Valauskas; AUTM Educational Series No. 5: Development and Deployment of Digital Works in Universities: A Guide for Authors and Licensing Officers, with Charles C. Valauskas; and AUTM Educational Series No. 6: Academic Technology Transfer: Driving Public Use of University Research Results, with Howard Bremer and Christopher McKinney.
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