Now almost all research universities in the United States have technology licensing operations. The number of U.S. patents granted to American universities in a year rose from about 300 in 1980 to almost 2000 in 1995. The direct economic impact of technology licensing on the universities themselves has been relatively small. In contrast, the impact of university technology transfer on the local and national economies has been substantial, and leads to the concusion that the Licensing Act () is one of the most successful pieces of economic development in recent history. It has been estimated that more than 200000 jobs have been created in the United States in product development and manufacturing of products from university licenses, with the number increasing fairly rapidly as the licenses mature.

　　Intellectual property terms have become vitally important. The company wants to be assured that it can use the results of the research-and that these results will not be available to their competitors. But most universities insist that transfer of research results is key to their identity and mission and will not agree to keep the project results secret. The key to resolving this dilemman is to grant patents: the university will publish the results, but will first agree to file  patents that will protect the company’s privilege in the commercial market place.