MIT Sues Sony over digital TV

dfinney wrote to us with a story from The Tech, concerning MIT suing Sony. Basically, MIT claims to have a number of patents, has worked with other folks in the industry, sez they've talked with Sony for a year, no headway, don't want to sue, but have key claims - etc etc.

Comments

graduate student inventions

[mj6798]

A lot of the truly novel ideas at a place like MIT are developed by graduate students, often with little or no input from professors. That can make the ethical question of ownership of those ideas a bit murky: graduate students aren't exactly getting paid a lot, and what they do get paid often doesn't come from MIT funds (but instead from fellowships and government grants). Of course, legally, you can be sure that MIT's lawyers have it all nailed down airtight.

I believe that in comparison to other educational institutions, MIT is quite a bit more enlightened, giving inventors 1/3 of any licensing revenues (at least in some departments). Universities like USF (hint: a place probably best avoided by smart students) have their student inventors thrown in jail if they want the exclusive rights to a promising invention.

As for these specific patents, it would be interesting to know what they are for: do they really represent interesting inventions, or is it the kind of patent that claims "any television that uses a framebuffer and a CPU".

Re:graduate student inventions

[Rogerborg]

• The point of academia is fame, not fortune. People who want to make their discoveries and get paid well for them go into industry

• I am under an NDA agreement. My employer decides who I may and may not share my knowledge with, and can legally gag me.
• My employer owns all rights to my inventions.
• My employer uses my inventions for their financial gain.

From that description, you tell me whether I work in "academia" or "industry". There is no dividing line any more.