First off, I'd like to say that I am all for fairness in patent law, and believe the process created can work. Still, I find it often works against the innovator, inventor, and even the student at the local university, which I'd like to get to in a moment as part of my topic and case study here today. You see, we have a problem when the inventor's dreams cannot be fulfilled because they end up in court, with huge legal bills, while someone else, some company, corporation, government, or university runs off with their proceeds and patent rights.
There was an interesting article in the Seattle Times recently titled; "Young Inventors Prompt Colleges to Revamp Rules" by Alan Scherzagier on January 24, 2011 (Associated Press Article) - Tagline; "Tony Brown didn't set out to overhaul his college's policies on intellectual property. He just wanted an easier way of tracking local apartment rentals on his iPhone."
Apparently, the school tried to make them give up 25% of the equity in their innovation and some two-thirds of their royalties to the school, because they thought about the idea while in class and created the Apple App, which now has a quarter million downloads. Ouch!
The article stated; "If the invention came from a school contest, extracurricular club or individual initiative, the university keeps its hands off. If the student invention came about under a professor's supervision, using school resources or grant money, then the university can assert an ownership right - just as it does for faculty researchers."
Now then, is it just me, or do you have a problem with this too? First, the student pays "excessive" costs to attend the school, and the professor cannot answer his questions, but the undeterred student comes up with an idea, which has nothing to do with the class, and takes advantage of the idea and goes into the "real world" and makes it economically viable, something the professor can't - after all, that's generally why they teach.
The Universities practically use these kids for free research labor, charge them for the privilege (Tom Sawyer comes to mind) and then when the student is in a regular classroom, unconnected to actual research he has an idea, so the University tries to steal his proceeds? This is crazy, as the student didn't sign over his mental brain power to the school, or is that what the University thinks? If so, they don't deserve the students paying those huge tuition bills do they?
How To Patent An Idea - Patenting Will Increase Your Idea's Value The Software Patent Process Gene Patenting Fact Software Patent Infringement Strategies Why Can Patents Be Granted for Multiple Similar Inventions? Using Archived Software Products As an Intellectual Property Portfolio
0 comments:
Post a Comment