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A few weeks ago, administrators at Penn State University did something they believed had never been attempted in American academia: The school put about 70 engineering patents up for auction and tried to sell them to the highest bidder. They weren't so successful - not many patents sold - but the project has disturbing implications. What if all this intellectual property, based on research done at a public institution, were to end up in the hands of someone less interested in innovation than in hauling companies to court? What if Penn State auctioned its inventions to a greedy patent troll?
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How Universities Might Aid and Abet Patent Trolls.
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We just joined the civil hair patrol!
(Score: 2) by black6host on Friday May 09 2014, @01:40AM
That's too vague a question for me to answer simply because I have no idea what they'd spend the money on.
I do believe, however, that I'd rather not be in a position of having to choose the lesser of two evils. Here's how it should work, IMO: University is funded (in part, I know..) and conducts research that is beneficial to mankind. That technology is then used for the benefit of all without added costs to the consumer.
Again, if a company wants to make a product using the technology they should be compensated. And they would be if their product was something that people wanted. Companies should not be entitled to exclusive rights to sell us a product that we helped fund the development of. If that's what they want then they can spend their own money on R&D and charge whatever they want. Just don't make me pay for the development and then charge me for the benefit they received from taxpayer funding. I've already paid once.