Mekorot National Water Company has accumulated vast intellectual property during its more than 70 years in business, but only now has it announced its first commercialization agreement. The company is considered a leader in water collection and treatment, but only under its previous chairman, Baruch Oren, did the company begin to operate as a business. This new strategy included calculating the value of the company's intellectual property and protecting and commercializing it. Mekorot has since obtained three patents, the first in 2006.
The water market has opened to the commercialization of intellectual property in recent years, as awareness about water shortages, desertification, and contamination of water sources has spread. In addition, China and India are undergoing rapid urbanization, which require the rapid construction of effective water infrastructures.
Mekorot is carrying out the commercialization through WaTech - Entrepreneurship & Partnership Center for Water Technologies.
Mekorot's first intellectual property commercialization agreement is for software to determine water quality in wells. The software was developed Dr. Meir Rom, a senior data systems engineer, on the basis of mathematical-statistical models established by the water quality unit of Mekorot's Hydrology Department. The company's water resources and information systems units helped develop the software.
Under the agreement, Mekorot will hand over the intellectual property it has accumulated in the matter to a new company, Aquantage Ltd., which will implement and develop the technology. Mekorot will receive royalties on any sales.
Mekorot says that the software can identify trends of potential pollution of water sources over a long period, and sound an alarm in order to prevent contamination. The software has real-time monitoring, high-speed calculation, access to any user and capabilities, which are combined with a geographical information system (GIS) and computerized sorting and graphics features.
Mekorot is successfully using the technology in its water quality control system. It says that the system is interactive, easy to use, and suitable for companies and utilities that operate extensive monitoring systems, such as water corporations, sewage treatment systems, regulators, ecological authorities, and consultancy firms.
WaTech will handle the commercialization activity relating to the agreement, until licenses are awarded to the relevant industrial companies, in the same way as the universities' technology transfer companies work. WaTech estimates the sales potential of the software at several million dollars a year.
Mekorot established WaTech in 2004 as part of the company's business strategy. Yossi Yaakobi has been running WaTech since the beginning of this year, after running the marketing division of Mekorot's projects subsidiary Shaham for eight years.
WaTec operates under Mekorot VP engineering and technologies Rafi Ifergan. He said that Mekorot currently carries out 50 research studies a year, mostly in collaboration with Israeli and foreign universities. "WaTech leads and directs the studies. The primary objective is to meet technological need and to upgrade current technologies, while cutting the company's costs."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 29, 2010
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