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A few years back, my advisor and I went through the process of applying for a patent for some of our reseach, via our university's IP office. They would only pa

A few years back, my advisor and I went through the process of applying for a patent for some of our reseach, via our university's IP office. They would only pay for the provisional patent -- we would have to come up with any funding for a full patent (like $20k) and they would still own the patent. That doesn't give much incentive for researchers to push for patenting and commercialization. We just dropped the idea, given that it would take a lot more work to develop the idea to the stage that a VC would be interested. What he said about funding is generally right -- at least in the CS world, most research projects are only implemented far enough to get a paper published. The funding (and tenure system) doesn't really reward any further development. The one exception that I've seen is the NSF SBIR/STTR program: they can give you some angel-level money to get the project beyond a research prototype (and do not take any equity!). edit: I've also heard that the funding situation is better in Europe, but I don't know any details.

yummyfajitas 17y ago
Your story is very strange, the usual way the university patent system works is the following. You ask them to apply for a patent. They either apply for it (eating the $20k themselves) or else they send you a letter declining any interest. If you get the "decline" letter, that means they gave up any interest or ownership in your invention.
- jfischer 17y ago
  My experience was in the University of California system. I certainly would have preferred that they either declined it immediately or paid for the full application. It may be that they don't have much experience in software. Also, software patents are less valuable than those in other areas, like biotech. We didn't really care too much about the patent but wanted the IP ownership to be clear.
psyklic 17y ago
I'm not surprised. Our tech transfer office says that the vast majority of offices actually lose money applying for patents. The ones which are profitable make almost all of their profits on only a few patents.

yummyfajitas 17y ago

Your story is very strange, the usual way the university patent system works is the following. You ask them to apply for a patent. They either apply for it (eating the $20k themselves) or else they send you a letter declining any interest. If you get the "decline" letter, that means they gave up any interest or ownership in your invention.

jfischer 17y ago
My experience was in the University of California system. I certainly would have preferred that they either declined it immediately or paid for the full application. It may be that they don't have much experience in software. Also, software patents are less valuable than those in other areas, like biotech. We didn't really care too much about the patent but wanted the IP ownership to be clear.

psyklic 17y ago

I'm not surprised. Our tech transfer office says that the vast majority of offices actually lose money applying for patents. The ones which are profitable make almost all of their profits on only a few patents.