In February, the CU Government Relations staff met with the Colorado Congressional delegation to express concern for provisions included in recently-proposed patent legislation, and help them understand how a strong, enforceable patent is essential to new companies created with CU technology.  Over the last 20 years, CU has worked with faculty to create 141 companies, which have received $6.2 billion in follow-on capital.  Many of those companies – including 8 that have “gone public” and 19 that have been acquired by public companies – continue to help grow the Colorado economy.  Recently, more than 144 universities - including CU, Colorado State University and the Colorado School of Mines - joined in a letter raising concerns about the how the legislation could make it more difficult for our spin-off companies to enforce their patents and attract the venture capital they need to grow. We will continue to work with our delegation to make sure that inventors and innovators have strong incentives to grow the state’s economy.