We don’t know whether the author believes corporations would demand prohibitively high fees. Other researchers fear that this would happen, but we don’t know the author’s opinion about the likelihood of this.

This is the opposite of what the author thinks. The author would likely believe that the researcher probably wouldn’t have the patent enforced against her. This is based on the author’s skepticism that a patent “could or would be enforced a researcher” who is conducting “basic and noncommercial research.”

There’s no evidence the author thinks the university would take any action to restrict the research.

Supported, because the author would likely believe that the researcher probably wouldn’t have the patent enforced against her. This is based on the author’s skepticism that a patent “could or would be enforced against a researcher” who is conducting “basic and noncommercial research.”

There’s no evidence the author thinks the corporation is likely to fund the research. The mere fact that the corporation might profit from the research does not imply the author thinks the corporation would fund the research.