Ramot at Tel Aviv University — Israel's Third Major University Tech-Transfer Office

Ramot at Tel Aviv University Ltd. was founded in 1973 as the exclusive technology-transfer company of Tel Aviv University (TAU), wholly owned by the university. It manages IP protection, patent licensing and venture financing for university research, and operates the Momentum Fund, a venture-financing arm for TAU-linked startups.

TAU's own site credits Ramot with more than 5,000 patent applications covering over 1,300 inventions, and reports the university ranked 66th globally and 1st in Israel for US patents granted in 2018, with 37 US patents registered that year through Ramot. Ramot cites over 100 start-up companies formed from TAU IP; an independently reported example is a flash-storage patent filed by Ramot in 2004 and licensed to M-Systems roughly a year later, with M-Systems later acquired by SanDisk for $1.55 billion. The Momentum Fund raised $23.5 million in 2014 from investors including Temasek and Tata Group (each committing at least $5 million) plus SanDisk, financing startups QArt Medical, Unispectral, Trobix, Multivu and Silib.

Ramot's model has also generated legal friction: in 2022 Cisco filed for declaratory non-infringement against a newly issued Ramot patent (US 11,342,998) the same day it was granted, and Ramot counter-sued; in November 2024 a US federal judge ruled several of the patent's claims indefinite, a partial win for Cisco, while other claims survived. No independent academic or governmental evaluation specifically assessing Ramot's model was located.