Academic institutions have long leveraged their unique position as cornerstones in the public trust to exact market benefits to the financial detriment of their business partners.
In some cases this advantage may be warranted, as public money is used to support scientific advances commercially exploited by academic institutions for the betterment of the institutions, students, the communities in which they serve and the public at large.
But much like intercollegiate athletics, the development and exploitation of university intellectual property is a big business. A business that is unequal in its benefits and obligations. And one that is in need of attention.
Scientific advances subsidized by tax dollars, developed using graduate researchers, advantaged through legal protections designed to disproportionately alter market risks, that result in exponential endowments suggests that perhaps a rebalancing needs to occur in this process.