[tbagman]

It's a complex situation, as other posters have noted.

Here's another complication. Often, faculty need multiple sources of funding over the years to support their research, including federal grants, university support (direct through money or indirect through facilities and staff), and industrial support through gifts and grants. As well, the intellectual heavy-lifting is done by the faculty and their students.

If you believe in intellectual property rights, then who of all of these stakeholders deserves ownership of those rights?

Personally, I lean against faculty patenting their inventions. I'd rather the IP is open to the public. Even if a faculty member wants to commercialize their research, I think they are better off competing in the marketplace rather than through IP arsenals.

But, I understand the other point of view. Patent licensing is a lucrative source of revenue for universities (e.g., UFL and its Gatorade revenue) and inventors. As well, it's at least uncomfortable and perhaps unfair if opportunistic companies were able to commercialize on a faculty member's invention without renumeration or attribution.

Complicated topic.