In the early years of UCLA’s Office of Intellectual Property, professors and donors were critical of the technology-transfer program. They said it failed to turn out successful startup companies and wasn’t doing enough to license its technology to local corporations.

But the university’s technology transfer program is much different today.

Last year, UCLA produced more startups in one year than it did during a 5-year period in the late 1990s.

Earl Weinstein, associate director of licensing started working for the office in 2005. He said the office addressed its past problems by forming better relationships with faculty, becoming more aggressive about filing patents and making connections with the local investor community.

“I think we’ve really continued to focus on the fundamentals,” he said. “The numbers speak for themselves. But it doesn’t mean there’s not more we can do.”

Last year, UCLA produced 27 startup companies. That’s more than Caltech or USC. With nearly 40,000 students, it’s the largest of the three L.A. research institutions.

Even so, Emily Waldron Loughran, director of licensing, said that was more than the university normally produces in a year.

“We’ve been outperforming most of our peer institutions,” she said. “I don’t think there’s any sort of magic ingredient. There’s some luck involved too.”

The office’s licensing and patent work is also robust. UCLA also has more than 500 inventions currently optioned or licensed by other companies. And it has a patent portfolio of about 1,700.

Because the patent process can be difficult and expensive, the office has developed ways to make it easier for faculty and students to begin the process. For example, the office uses provisional filings to get patent protection quickly and at a much lower cost than a full patent.

Many of the companies that come from UCLA are focused on building medical devices or working on drug development. Kite Pharma in Westwood is working on a drug that stimulates a patient’s immune system to fight cancer cells, and Bruin Biometrics has developed a device to help break up the fluid in skin tissue that leads to ulcers.

The office also provides mentoring and funding support for startup businesses by working with outside venture capital firms and other departments on campus, such as the Business of Science Center at the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology and the Anderson School of Business.

“What we’ve tried to do,” Waldron Loughran said, “is really weave ourselves into the ecosystem where we can help make introductions.”