Monday January 7, 2008, 9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
"University Licensing" - Presentation (PDF)
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Karen Hersey Biography
Karen Hersey has recently retired as senior counsel for intellectual property at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While senior counsel at M.I.T., she directed an office of three intellectual property attorneys advising M.I.T. faculty, research scientists and students on matters relating to patents, copyrights, computer software and technology transfer. Ms. Hersey represented M.I.T.'s interests on intellectual property matters with U.S. government agencies and advised the Institute on appropriate positions for non-profit organizations with respect to various tax-related and regulatory matters. She actively contributed to developing university response strategy on intellectual property-related federal legislation and regulations
Ms. Hersey joined M.I.T. as a technology licensing attorney in 1980, just as technology transfer was becoming an important activity for American research universities. In 1987, Ms. Hersey left M.I.T. to take up the directorship of technology licensing at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. While with North Carolina State, Ms. Hersey expanded the licensing activity of the University, developed educational materials for faculty on patenting and licensing and took a leading role in starting a high-tech small business incubator for the Research Triangle Area, including serving on its Board of Trustees.
In 1990, Ms. Hersey returned to M.I.T. as principal legal advisor on intellectual property matters and policy for M.I.T. and Lincoln Laboratory (M.I.T.'s government-owned, contractor-operated federal laboratory) with major emphasis on building university-industry relationships and policy matters.
An active member of the university technology transfer community, she has chaired and participated in numerous workshops and seminars on technology transfer practice and copyright in association with many national and international organizations. She has served as President of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) and as Chair of the Technology Transfer and Research Ethics Committee of the Council on Governmental Relations (COGR).
In addition to extensive lecturing on issues related to the commercialization of university technology and serving on technology transfer advisory boards, Ms. Hersey works on selected projects with universities, governmental organizations and private sector companies through her company, Partneringworks, Inc. She also teaches courses in nonprofit technology transfer and asset management in the university at Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, NH, where she is a Visiting Professor of Law.
Ms. Hersey holds a bachelor's degree from Goucher College in Towson, Maryland and a law degree from Boston University. While at Boston University, she was a member of the Boston University Law Review. She is a member of the Massachusetts and North Carolina Bars.