PrepTest 116 - Section 1 - Passage 4 - Question 24

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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.

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.

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Classification of IP Policies · 4 types

This is based on Patricia Chew's scholarship.

Type 1 · Supramaximalist

Everything belongs to the university. Even discoveries made while not at work.

Type 2 · Maximalist

Everything belongs to the university, except inventions unconnected to their employment.

Type 3 · Significant use

If "significant use" of university time and facilities involved, then university owns IP.

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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.

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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

24.

Which one of the following ████████████ █████ ███ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████████████ ████████ ██ █████

Question Type

Application

The fourfold classification is explained in P2. It covers four types of institutions: supramaximalist ones that own all faculty discoveries, even those made outside of work; maximalist ones those that own all discoveries except those made outside of work; resource-provider ones that own any discoveries that made “significant use” of the institution’s resources; and faculty-oriented ones that give faculty ownership of their own discoveries except in limited circumstances. We should check each answer against the criteria for each category in P2. The four wrong answers will match one of the four categories, while the right answer won’t match any of them.

an institution in █████ ███████ ███ ███ █████ ██ ████ ██████████ ████ ██████ ███████ ███ ███████████

This would be a maximalist institution.

an institution in █████ ███████ ███ ███ █████ ███████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████████████ ███ █████ ███ ███████████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ █ ███████ ██ █████ █████████

This doesn’t match any of categories under the fourfold classification system. The closest one would be a faculty-oriented institution, which gives faculty the most ownership of their inventions—but even those institutions still have circumstances where faculty don’t own their inventions. And none of the categories involve splitting of royalties.

67%

an institution in █████ ███ ██████████ █████████ ██ ███████ ████ █████████████ █████████ ██████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███████████

This could be either a maximalist or supramaximalist institution. Either way, it’s covered by the fourfold classification system.

an institution in █████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ███████ ██ ██████ ██████ ██████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███████████

This could be either a supramaximalist institution (which owns all faculty inventions without exception) or a faculty-oriented institution (which owns inventions related to public health). Either way, it’s covered by the fourfold classification system.

10%

an institution in █████ ████ ███████ ██████████ ███████ ████ █████████████ █████████ ██████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████

This could be either a resource-provider institution (which allows faculty to own their inventions as long as they didn’t use “significant” institutional resources) or a faculty-oriented institution (which generally allows faculty to own their inventions except in very specific circumstances). Either way, it’s covered by the fourfold classification system.

PrepTest 116 - Section 1 - Passage 4 - Question 24

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