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Universities Patenting More Student Ideas
theodp writes "Working as a NASA intern, grad student Erez Lieberman had a eureka moment, resulting in an algorithm that detects whether a person is standing correctly or is off balance. Unfortunately, MIT liked it so much they decided to patent it. Seeking permission to use his own idea for his iShoe startup, which develops products like insoles to address the problems of seniors, Lieberman was told no problem — as long as he promised a hefty royalty and forked over a $75,000 upfront payment. Whether or not students are aware of it, the NYTimes reports that most universities own inventions created by students that were developed using a 'significant' amount of schools resources. Colleges and universities once obtained fewer than 250 patents a year, but that was before the Bayh-Dole Act gave them ownership of inventions developed through federally financed research. Now they acquire about 3,000 a year, and in 2006 licensing fees and equity in spinoff companies totaled at least $45B — research powerhouses like Stanford and NYU pocketed $61M and $157M, respectively."
AC = Me. Why the hell did I click Post Anonymously? Ahh, because it's 3:30am and I've been up 26 hours.
[...] surely the fact that THE STUDENTS ARE ALREADY PAYING FOR USE OF THESE RESOURCES should mean that they owe the university nothing, and anything outside of normal coursework is theirs to call their own.
I work at a public research university, and last I checked, students do not pay millions of $$ to attend the university. Do students at your research universities pay that much?? I know private schools are more expensive, but damn ...
The faculty researcher generally gets a grant to support his/her research, and is supported by the university system (infrastructure, work space, time to conduct research, etc.) Sure, students pay tuition to attend university - but that tuition supports things like the IT infrastructure (email, student records, web, network, etc.), physical infrastructure (buildings, classrooms, maintenance, upkeep, etc.) and only a tiny portion of that tuition goes to support research infrastructure.
If a student uses significant university resources to create his/her idea (or, has this idea while working as a research assistant) the university can expect to have a claim on that idea (i.e. a patent.)