We investigate the factors influencing an academic's propensity to patent and the quality of patenting in nanotechnology and biotechnology. We find that a university researcher is more likely to be listed as an inventor of a patented innovation, regardless of the assignee, if he receives private funding, has a fairly high level of cliquishness in the scientific network and has shown a prior capacity to successfully collaborate with industry, a concept that we name innovation loops. Furthermore, citation rate and number of claims, which are both used to represent patent quality, are influenced by factors similar to those explaining patent quantity.