PT116.S1.P4.Q28

PrepTest 116 - Section 1 - Passage 4 - Question 28

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P1

Faculty researchers, particularly in scientific, engineering, and medical programs, often produce scientific discoveries and invent products or processes that have potential commercial value. ████ ████████████ ████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████████ ██████████████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████ █████ ████████████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ██ █████████ █████ ██ ████████ ███████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████ █████████ █████ ███████████ ██████ ██████████ ██████████ █████████████ ███

Context · Faculty researchers produce discoveries with commercial value
Universities can profit by licensing those discoveries
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Problem · Financially tempting for faculty to leave university and work for startup
If universities don't incentivize their faculty correctly, that is.
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Solution · Reconsider universities IP policies to give faculty the right level of flexibility to profit from their inventions
So, is the issue that the universities are hoarding all the profit upside? I suppose if I made a huge biotech discovery, I wouldn't be too happy if my university didn't share the profit with me.
P2

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Classification of IP Policies · 4 types
This is based on Patricia Chew's scholarship.
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Type 1 · Supramaximalist
Everything belongs to the university. Even discoveries made while not at work.
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Type 2 · Maximalist
Everything belongs to the university, except inventions unconnected to their employment.
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Type 3 · Significant use
If "significant use" of university time and facilities involved, then university owns IP.
P3

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Commentary · University ownership is the rule, faculty ownership is the exception
Chew and others note that this is actually contrary to what common law assumes, which is that as a rule faculty own IP. Author claims most universities are taking advantage of their faculty when maximizing ownership and profit rights.
P4

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Type 4 (Solution) · Faculty-oriented
Faculty ownership is the rule, university ownership is the exception.
Passage Style
Problem-analysis
Single position
Show answer
28.

The passage suggests each of ███ █████████ ███████

a

Supramaximalist institutions run ███ ████████ ████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ████████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████████ ██████████

Supported. The risk of losing faculty in this way stems from a lack of flexibility, and supramaximalist institutions are the least flexible of any. They claim ownership of all faculty IP, no matter the circumstances.

7%
b

A faculty-oriented institution ████ ████ ██ █████ ██ █████████ ██ █ ███████ █████████ ████ ██ █████████ ██ ██████ ██████ ███ ███████ ███████ ██████████ ████████████

Strongly supported. The only time a faculty-oriented institution claims ownership is when the invention is related to public health or involves “substantial university involvement.” If an invention is unrelated to public health, and if the degree of university involvement is none, these institutions assume that the invention belongs to the faculty member.

8%
c

Faculty at maximalist ████████████ ██████ ███████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ███████████ ███████ █████ ███ █████████████ ██████████

Strongly supported. Maximalist institutions allow faculty to own their inventions unless the faculty either (1) produces the invention as part of their jobs for the university or (2) uses university resources. The author then says that these conditions almost always apply, meaning faculty usually do produce the invention as part of their university day jobs and do use university resources. In other words, it’s rare for them to produce inventions outside the university and avoid using university resources. Note that this underlies why (D) is also strongly supported.

19%
d

There is little █████████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████████████ ███ ██████████ █████████████

Strongly supported. The author says that while maximalist policies are technically different from supramaximalist ones, in practice, they end up giving the university ownership of almost all faculty IP anyway. So there’s little practical difference between the two.

13%
e

The degree of █████████ ███████ ██ █ █████████████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ██ █████

Unsupported. The resource-provider policy is to claim ownership whenever its faculty make “significant use” of university resources. Since different inventions may use university resources to different degrees, this policy allows for the possibility that ownership varies from case to case. (See question 25, which boils down to this same point.)

53%

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