Student Licensors Win $10,000

On May 11, 2006, Caralynn Nowinski, an MBA/MD student, and Chirag Patel, an MBA/MS candidate, from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) took home the $10,000 first prize in the 2006 Edwin A. Shallaway Graduate Student Licensing Competition for their plan to make their company, SanoGene Therapeutics Inc., the first to introduce therapeutic siRNAs (interfering pieces of RNA) for preventing tumor growth and invasion and induce cancer cell death.

The annual Licensing Competition is sponsored by the Licensing Foundation, Inc., a non-profit subsidiary of the Licensing Executives Society (USA & Canada) Inc., (LES), a professional organization with members who specialize in the commercialization of intellectual properties (IP). Each of the participating teams was required to submit a business plan with a core IP licensing component.

UIC was one of four teams, out of a total of 12 entries, chosen to present their business plan at the LES Spring Meeting here this week. Entries were judged based on a variety of factors including attractiveness of the venture, quality of the product/service offered, market opportunity and investment potential.

The runner up teams each received $1,000 prizes for their impressive submissions, which included a plan on alternative biofuels presented by Duke, a plan for the development of a smaller battery with more longevity for implantable medical devices from Stanford and a plan to develop a device that would help people who suffer from chronic ear ringing from Wake Forest.

Entries are now being accepted for the 2007 Graduate Student Licensing Competition. The competition will be held at the LES Spring Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information visit www.licensingfoundation.org.