The bill — LD 1324, An Act to Support Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Maine’s Economic Future — would explicitly proffer certain powers onto the organization, including the ability to administer and support business incubators, assist the University of Maine System and nonprofit research labs with technology transfer and commercialization, and create a program to replace the now-defunct Maine Patent Program. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Martin Grohman (D-Biddeford), co-authored it with Catherine Renault, a consultant and former director of the Maine Office of Innovation. Two Republicans—Sen. Garrett Mason, the Senate Majority Leader from Lisbon Falls, and Rep. Matthew Pouliot (R-Augusta)—are co-sponsors on the bill. Though vague, MTI’s enabling legislation grants the organization a broad mandate, so whether the new bill is actually necessary for MTI to pursue the initiatives in question is a topic of discussion. The bill was referred on Tuesday to the Legislature’s Labor, Commerce, Research, and Economic Development committee. A public hearing is scheduled for Wed., April 19, at 1 p.m.
A Program to Support Incubators and Accelerators
MTI’s role in the state’s innovation ecosystem was recently thrust into the center of a debate after Gov. Paul LePage in January proposed eliminating funding for the state’s Applied Technology Development Center system, which funnels state money to business incubators like the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development. At the time, the governor’s spokesperson told Maine Startups Insider that MTI had the capacity to fill the resulting budget holes and provide the necessary funding to the incubators. Sen. Amy Volk, Republican co-chair of the LCRED committee, reiterated that stance in late March when she voted in favor of the governor’s proposal. (The committee, however, voted 7-6 along party lines to opposed the cuts, with Democrats voting to retain the ATDC funding.) The bill was written in December, a month before the governor released his proposed biennial budget, “but does provide a simple way to explicitly transfer the responsibility to MTI,” according to Renault. Specifically, the bill would grant MTI the power to:
Tech Transfer and Commercialization
In writing the bill, Rep. Grohman said he wanted to “strongly” encourage MTI to pursue creation of a program to help the University of Maine commercialize the most promising research and intellectual property its researchers and students have developed. That also applies to the state’s nonprofit research labs that don’t have the resources to spin off IP into commercial products, Renault said. As written, LD 1324 would give MTI the ability to:
A New Patent Program
One goal of the new bill that Grohman believes is extremely important is to fill a hole in the ecosystem created when the Maine Patent Program was shut down in 2014. An entrepreneur himself, Grohman benefited from the Maine Patent Program when his company, CorrectDeck, was faced with a patent-related lawsuit. He thought it a mistake when the Maine Patent Program was shut down and wants MTI to spearhead the creation of a successor. Specifically, LD 1324 would give MTI the power to:
Is It Necessary?
Brian Whitney, MTI’s president, is not opposed to the bill, but said it’s likely unnecessary since he believes current law already provides the organization with the abilities the new bill is trying to explicitly proffer. MTI’s enabling law does provide the organization with a broad mandate that likely could be interpreted to allow the powers the bill is attempting to systematize. For example, current law says: Current law also states that MTI should cooperate with the Department of Economic and Community Development, the University of Maine System and other organizations: Grohman admits the law grants a broad mandate, but he said that’s not always a good thing for state agencies, which are often cautious about trying to interpret legislative intent. In this case, being more explicit in MTI’s mandate would remove that potential hesitancy and allow MTI’s board to move ahead with some of these initiatives without needing to worry about whether it’s outside its legal scope. The post New bill seeks to expand Maine Technology Institute’s scope appeared first on Maine Startups Insider. Read more about the Maine startup ecosystem here on Tech.Co
