Anonymously contributed:
"I'm researching patent/IP theft, and I'm curious if you know -- or could put me in touch with someone who does know -- about patent/IP looting at national labs. I have a friend who works at a national lab in California who has been working on a design for some time. It's almost ready for technology transfer/licensing, and some claim-jumpers have started calling it "Our unique patented technology" and are out winning business plan competitions with it, and are shopping the gadget around for venture money and manufacture. My friend has had this happen to three of his inventions now, and the previous two times, the Lab folded its cards and granted licenses for token fees. Once again, the Lab looks to be issuing not-very-strongly-worded letters expressing concern about apparent improprieties, while eyeing the exits nervously. My suspicion is that various business types have discovered that if you just straight rip off a National Lab, the government is so full of people who are either A) afraid of controversy or B) convinced that "government bad, business good," that you can walk up, steal their lunch money, and they won't do anything about it.
If you can put me in touch with anyone whose useful invention has been stolen by the private sector while a National Lab sat by, wetting itself, I would very much like to know about it."
7 comments:
The labs have to make judgments on what inventions proceed to patent application. There simply isn't time and money to file on everything. And there is probably a subset of patents for which they would actually be prepared to spend serious funds to defend.
Do a little digging into IP licensing issues that preceded the sudden departure of a previous S program leader (lead negotiator for LLNL) to the licensee.
Two comments:
(1) Whenever you work for the Labs any idea becomes their idea.
(2) Whenever you give an idea to the Labs, expect them to steal it.
It's that simple.
Unfortunately, if the invention was made during the employment agreement, your friend is without recourse. The Labs are not strong developing new licensing rights, and the decision maker may not have the financial incentive to develop financial rights, when he/she can just score a disclosure. The other DOE labs have the same poor and diffuse incentives to develop financial returns since they are structured the same. I know of a single inventor who gets perhaps $2000 per month on 4-5 current inventions, most get very poor support.
Most major development labs, PARC, IBM Watson, Westinghouse R&D, now extinct dinosaurs, were poor at exploiting ideas.
Better to be a singleton or member of a small team, then it is in your interest to get rich, so you pursue your Coronado with gusto.
And the program developers whose job it is to get new work, will take credit for your friends efffort to pad their meager accomplishments.
It's a big bureaucracy.
Keep in mind the labs are not invention houses, mindful of exploiting ideas.
Inventions are byproducts or curiosities that get uneven treatment because neither the inventor nor the labs know how to effectively exploit the ideas. If they did, angel investors would be all over this place.
They talk a good game, but its not their strength.
As already noted, many places that generate lots of intellectual property have a very uneven track record on commercialization. And it's not like there is some semi-foolproof formula. The venture capitalists have a track record of maybe 1 in 7 start-ups going ballistic. I've seen data for some campus with a lot of license and royalty income, but in fact the vast majority was from less than a handful of particular patents. This stuff is just hard and subject to many chance circumstances and influences.
If your friend thinks they really have something, then their best (but far from sure) bet may be to go on entrepreneurial leave and put all their passion behind it. It will be an adventure no matter what.
Wow, I was part of a small group of people that decided to licence llnl IP and started a small business. We were soon informed by counsel that the IP was so poorly done that we should start to add additional "picket fence" around the idea, and of course did so. When the company discovered others encroaching on the llnl IP we were given the cold shoulder by the lab and ended up spending allot of precious funds protecting ourselves.Then here is the most bazarre thing I have ever seen, one day the doors were "kicked in" and computers confiscated under a claim by llnl that we had stolen llnl IP. Of course when the dust settled they (attorneys hired by the lab) decided that oops, they were mistaken and it was all a big misunderstanding. We of course were never reimbursed for any legal expenses. There IP group may be weak as one blogger suggests, but they act like a bunch of thugs. Beware if your company is considering using any llnl IP, you could get ripped off big-time. To the original post, the government should not be in the business of making you rich, or spending our tax money for terrorising businesses. If you believe in what your doing go out on your own,you can do it without them
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