Manhattan ? Here in the “Little Apple,” as this prairie town calls itself, there is a new twist to an old idea. In addition to using the knowledge created by its staff and students, Kansas State University, through a nonprofit set up for that purpose, goes scavenging at companies large and small, looking for patents that aren’t being used and asking for the right to try to do something with them. They’ve hit a gold mine.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. donated $10 million in machinery and patents. Cleveland Industrial giant Eaton Corp. gave 57 patents, estimated at $17 million, in areas including anti-lock braking systems and laser-based semiconductor manufacturing. Procter & Gamble Co. donated the patent rights for a technology that allows a fruity mixture of juice and milk, a type of smoothie, to remain stable and not turn into clabber.

All the donations were made to the Mid-America Commercialization Corp. (MACC), a nonprofit firm that tries to turn the university’s intellectual property into profits.

The companies receive a tax break for the donation and good publicity, sometimes but they must relinquish all rights to the donated patents. The university, in turn, gains access to expensive research that could turn into a profitable product. If things go really well, the university might sell the newly formed company back to the original company or another well-financed buyer.

It’s unclear whether all the donations will pan out, but the Procter & Gamble donation is starting to pay off. NutriJoy Inc., a for-profit spinoff of MACC, recently launched a new juice and milk drink called Cal-C that is a big seller in grocery stores here and in a test market in California, where the product is made.

With various flavors, the drink’s selling point is that a 20-ounce bottle has a full day’s supply of Vitamin C and 50 percent more calcium than milk. The feat was made possible by the patent donation, plus lots of tinkering at the university.

“We’re positioning it as a juice drink,” said David Yang, who heads NutriJoy Inc., founded in June 2000 by MACC and the Kansas State Research Foundation. “But the benefits are more towards the dairy products.”

State leaders couldn’t be happier. In 1987, Kansas created the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp., a quasi-public entity meant to promote technology advancement statewide. And that group, in turn, created MACC and sister organizations such as the Kansas Innovation Corp. at Kansas University. Each is tax-exempt, has a board of directors that includes business, university and legislative representatives and a charge to go out and create new companies. State officials hope the new enterprises eventually will create jobs and tax revenue.

“This is a way of diversifying our economy,” said state Rep. Kent Glasscock, R-Manhattan. “It is the epitome of leading edge. They’ve got a number of startup companies that seem to have tremendous promise.”

The venture is funded, in part, by the state and by the city of Manhattan, in hopes of creating new jobs and revenue.