Recent headlines have been booming with intellectual property
(IP) conflicts of interest. From Pennsylvania to Texas, lawsuits are
being filed, jobs are being lost, and start-ups are being put under
scrutiny.
At the University of Texas at Austin, Richard Miller, the school’s first Chief Commercialization Officer, resigned
in late December after being questioned about his financial interest in
start-ups licensing technology from the university. Miller had been a
great asset to the school generating $25.6 million in licensing revenue,
29 new licensing and options agreements, and 58 U.S. and foreign
patents. However, his ambitious entrepreneurial background also spurred
personal investment interests in three start-ups. Miller divested his
holdings in the three companies and still chose to resign despite the
university admitting no conflict of interest had yet taken place since
no technology had officially been licensed from UT.
In January, the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at The University of Pennsylvania announced a filing against Craig Thompson, former Director of the cancer center. The complaint claimed that Thompson co-founded Agios Inc.,
a company focused on developing novel cancer-metabolism drugs, with IP
from the university. During his 12 years with the university, Thompson
led groundbreaking research on the metabolism of cancer cells. He is now
accused of “knowingly misrepresenting” to Agios that he had sole rights
to the research.
Brian O’Shaughnessy, an IP lawyer at Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney PC,
acknowledges the blurred boundaries of IP, “it is common for
universities to specify that researchers can spend 20% or 25% of their
time doing consulting work or engaging in initiatives focused on private
enterprise such as start-ups; but there is often not enough clarity
stipulating what this work can involve, and what separates it from the
work that is being done for the university.
All universities outline their IP policies publicly, and some universities
even provide examples of potential conflicts of interest. So what is
causing the disconnect? Are universities not clearly informing employees
about these publicly posted IP rules and regulations? Are researchers
not reading the fine print and taking the risk of mixing private and
public work?
Tell us about your experiences working around the fine line of IP rights.