A friend of mine who is currently perusing his Master currently mentioned to me that, the Idea he submitted for his project has impressed his professors and the college is applying a patent on the idea.He was not completely willing to patent it,the reason being the compromise of the idea and a openness in sharing the idea. Today he received the news that the patent is shared with 2 other top level profs who have not helped him in any way. He is pissed now and wants to back out. What does HN say what is a wise decision in such a case?
Ask HN:Patent Unwillingness
1–10 of 24 posts
Re: Ask HN:Patent Unwillingness
#2He probably doesn't have a choice. Check out the student handbook for the university that he agreed to follow when enrolling. There's just about always a part about turning over both copyrights and rights to inventions if they're submitted as part of a class or the student used any school resource (such as consulting any professor) in the process of creation.
Re: Ask HN:Patent Unwillingness
#3I'd say - publish the idea and make use of it. You cannot (in theory) patent anything that was already published somewhere.
Re: Ask HN:Patent Unwillingness
#4I'd say - publish the idea and make use of it. You cannot (in theory) patent anything that was already published somewhere.
The idea is unique and not published anywhere,hence the patent
Re: Ask HN:Patent Unwillingness
#5Raise a big stink in the local media and any internet channel you can think of. You might not have a legal leg to stand on but at least you can shame them with publicly available information.
Or just move on and accept this as a lesson learned.
Re: Ask HN:Patent Unwillingness
#6It's unfortunate he didn't beat them to the punch and patent it himself putting him in control. Not sure what he's trying to achieve out of all this and it may seem a bit cliche to say consult an attorney but that is probably what he should do that this point to see what his options are if he wishes to recoup anything out of this (and I don't mean just money aka rights, etc)...
Re: Ask HN:Patent Unwillingness
#7Re: Ask HN:Patent Unwillingness
#8Re: Ask HN:Patent Unwillingness
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
The idea is unique and not published anywhere,hence the patent
Yeah, so publish it. Publish it here right now.
I would imagine that publishing the idea would leave the friend liable for legal action.
It is highly (as dangrossman has already pointed out) that your friend has already signed something that assigns all IP created during a course.