I actually work part-time for GFI. I have spoken to several of the Scitech folks, and surprisingly there is no set strategy for these cases. There seems to be a gradual change over time from strongly supporting open-source science to more nuanced ‘maybe patent but in a non-limiting way’.
What I understand is that they now believe filing a non-limiting or free license patent is preferable, as otherwise anyone can make a small tweak in the published method and patent it for profit.
The thing is I would love to patent and give it license-free, but I’m afraid I don’t have the power to make that decision, as the tech transfer office will do the filing and the ownership will be mostly the university’s.
I don’t know how any of this works, but is it a possibility for you to tell the Tech Transfer office that you will let them file the patent conditionally on it being free-license/non-limiting, otherwise you will publish it open-source? In line with TeddyW’s response — it sounds like licensing with “altruistic clauses” is something that the Tech Transfer office would be opposed to, given that they are for-profit; but maybe you have some leverage because presumably they have some incentive to file for the patent rather than it being fully open-source..?
Hey Sahkeel,
I actually work part-time for GFI. I have spoken to several of the Scitech folks, and surprisingly there is no set strategy for these cases. There seems to be a gradual change over time from strongly supporting open-source science to more nuanced ‘maybe patent but in a non-limiting way’.
That’s interesting to hear. What’s the reasoning for the non-limiting patent being preferable over the pure open-science approach?
What I understand is that they now believe filing a non-limiting or free license patent is preferable, as otherwise anyone can make a small tweak in the published method and patent it for profit.
The thing is I would love to patent and give it license-free, but I’m afraid I don’t have the power to make that decision, as the tech transfer office will do the filing and the ownership will be mostly the university’s.
I don’t know how any of this works, but is it a possibility for you to tell the Tech Transfer office that you will let them file the patent conditionally on it being free-license/non-limiting, otherwise you will publish it open-source? In line with TeddyW’s response — it sounds like licensing with “altruistic clauses” is something that the Tech Transfer office would be opposed to, given that they are for-profit; but maybe you have some leverage because presumably they have some incentive to file for the patent rather than it being fully open-source..?