| Section & Indicator | Units | 2008 | 2009 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Board of Directors | ||||
| Total Board Size | # of |
13.0 |
13.0 |
0.0 |
| Independent Directors | % |
12.0 |
12.0 |
0.0 |
| % Women | % |
7.7 |
7.7 |
0.0 |
| Average Age | # of |
62.5 |
63.5 |
1.0 |
| Average Compensation | $MM |
<">0.2 | 0.3 |
0.1 |
In-Licensing/Patents
At Life Technologies, we make the development of new Intellectual Property (IP) a central theme across our business. Each year we spend more than $300 million on research and development—more than any other life sciences tools company. This investment has resulted in a library of more than 3900 patents.
We track new inventions closely; anyone can submit an invention disclosure at any time, and all submissions are reviewed. In fact, we recently implemented an online tool to enable an invention disclosure to be submitted and modified across the company in a cumulative fashion. We believe that tracking the number of invention disclosures is a reasonable proxy for measuring innovation coming out of our R&D teams; we review our progress monthly.
We also provide performance incentives for innovation, and our R&D teams have specific goals and objectives designed around this metric. In 2009 we reworked our IP incentive effort so that inventors will benefit when their creation delivers real value for the company. Each year we invite key innovators to a dedicated Board of Directors dinner.
Ethics
In 2009, 98 percent of Life Technologies employees completed training on ethical conduct; our goal is 100% successful completion.
