Patent Law

On July 14, 2009, IP Advocate issued a press release (see excerpt below):

Adding new functionality and resources to its award-winning online community, IP Advocate has launched ?Expert Opinions,? a new section in the IPAO Forum on IPAdvocate.org designed to offer academic researchers insight and information on current intellectual property issues.

Participating experts will address topics such as technology transfer, commercialization, patent reform, IP legislation, university litigation and related subjects.  IPAdvocate.org is an online community founded to help safeguard the interests of faculty inventors and assist them in preserving their rights in their work.

?Expert Opinions? currently features a Q&A with Galen Suppes, Ph.D., Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Dr. Suppes discovered an environmentally friendly use of glycerin, the co-product of biodiesel production, and is currently fighting the University for the rights to several of his inventions. The Q&A with Dr. Suppes titled ?Critical Issues in University Intellectual Property,? covers job scope issues and best practices in provisional patent applications in a university setting. "Under no instances should an employee be required to assign an invention to a university or corporation until due diligence has been performed to determine whether the invention was truly within the scope of his/her job,? Dr. Suppes notes.

Another ?Expert Opinions? contributor, Fred Mermelstein, PhD., Executive Director of Javelin Pharmaceuticals, Inc., discusses how NIH-sponsored research could be advanced and more efficiently leveraged. ?A few simple modifications?..would likely generate significant outcomes,? Dr. Mermelstein writes. ?These include dedicating a minimal amount of grant funds to cover costs associated with filing a U.S. patent application to increase interaction between funded laboratories and their technology transfer offices and corporations interested in commercial development of research.?

Take a look here.