Current federal law allows universities to patent discoveries made with federal funding, but numerous empirical studies show that innovation is greater when researchers have more control over their own work. We should think about amending the law so that researchers and inventors have more of a direct right to patent their work and take it to market when a university is intransigent.
I believe Emory held a patent on molnupiravir, one of the drugs that had some early success in treating COVID, that they licensed out in 2022.
If we eliminate the ability of universities to capture rights to inventions, does this lead to universities having fewer faculty in fields that could potentially patent useful inventions (computers, biotech-adjacent fields, etc)? After all if a corporate entity couldn't control patents generated by their employees, the whole world of VC-funded biotech would fall apart in a heartbeat. Universities have other priorities, obviously, and are probably not as efficient about all this as a startup biotech would be, but the same incentives seem to apply to some degree.
Yet another financial reason the best young scientists are fleeing academia for the greener (💲) pastures of "industry"!
I believe Emory held a patent on molnupiravir, one of the drugs that had some early success in treating COVID, that they licensed out in 2022.
If we eliminate the ability of universities to capture rights to inventions, does this lead to universities having fewer faculty in fields that could potentially patent useful inventions (computers, biotech-adjacent fields, etc)? After all if a corporate entity couldn't control patents generated by their employees, the whole world of VC-funded biotech would fall apart in a heartbeat. Universities have other priorities, obviously, and are probably not as efficient about all this as a startup biotech would be, but the same incentives seem to apply to some degree.
Wow the amount Penn got is gobsmacking!