3 ms·
> A 2013 Brookings Institute study showed that 84% of universities didn’t make enough money from their patents to cover the related legal costs and the staffing
by runeks 5y ago
> A 2013 Brookings Institute study showed that 84% of universities didn’t make enough money from their patents to cover the related legal costs and the staffing of their tech transfer office.
You don’t have to make money from patents for them to make sense. They can work as an insurance against patent suits.
As I understand it, this is the reason many large corporations file so many patents: if they get sued, they hope that the other party has violated a patent of theirs, and they can reach a setttlement.
- 8note 5y agoThat mostly makes it seem like the whole thing is useless. Everyone has patents on everything, so there's always a settlement to be had. You could do away with all the paperwork by abolishing the patents
- runeks 5y agoI agree completely.
- new299 5y agoHas anyone ever taken action against a university for patent infringement? Seems very unlikely.