It's a stereotype. When the scientist finally isolates the protein and solves the age old conundrum, he yells ""Eureka!"" in a fit of joy. These days, however, that shout is immediately followed by a call to the lawyers.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, recently in the news for its policy changes allowing for a greater advancement of stem cell research, helps protect University of Wisconsin faculty and students' inventions by providing assistance in the patenting process.
University faculty and researchers can start the patenting process by completing an invention disclosure report form for WARF. The form is reviewed by an intellectual property manager, who analyzes the invention and decides whether it is patentable or marketable.
If the invention is accepted, WARF provides attorneys to draft a patent application for the U.S. Patent Office. If a patent is obtained, the innovation is then marketed to industries.
Ruth Litovsky, UW-Madison associate professor of communicative disorders, received a patent in 2003 after creating a test for speech intelligibility in children. She was working in a research program investigating how young children hear in noisy environments and was searching for a test for her research. When she could not find a test, she invented her own. Soon after, she was urged to contact WARF to pursue patenting her invention.
""I realized by talking to people that there would be clinics that could potentially use this test in treatments and evaluations of children,"" Litovsky said.
WARF accepted her invention and applied for the patent, which was issued within a year. The fast turnaround Litovsky experienced is atypical—obtaining patents sometimes takes several years.
Litovsky said that she and WARF are currently working out an agreement to decide if she should start a small company and market the product herself or if the invention should be licensed to an outside company.
According to Litovsky, ""WARF gives the inventor the right of first refusal,"" meaning the opportunity to market the product him or herself.
According to Warren Porter, UW-Madison zoology professor, patenting through WARF provides many benefits to the faculty, university and the public. Porter recently recieved his second patent for modeling animals' reactions to environmental conditions.
Porter said it is helpful to have WARF do most of the work during the patenting process, which takes pressure off of the faculty.
""Most of us don't have any experience in that arena and so it provides more opportunity for us to spend our time teaching and doing research rather than figuring out the intricacies of patent applications, finding a lawyer to do it and all the other associated challenges,"" Porter said.
The university benefits by receiving a share of the revenues from patented inventions.
Andrew Cohn, government and public relations manager at WARF, said, ""WARF's main mission is to support research at the University of Wisconsin.""
With money from successful patents, donations can be made to the university, which has totaled over $860 million since WARF's founding in 1925. Much of that money is distributed to professors by the Graduate School Research Committee.
Porter said federal grants benefit the state by bringing money into Wisconsin.
""The patents may be used to help develop businesses that hire people, such as graduates of the university, and generate billions of dollars in revenue for the state,"" Porter said.
The patented inventions, according to Cohn, can provide products and services to the public to help make their lives healthier and safer.
From 2005 to 2006, WARF helped university researchers earn 65 patents in various life and physical science categories, ranking among the highest for U.S. universities.
""It signifies that we have incredible scientists at the cutting edge of research who are creating patentable subject matter,"" Cohn said.
Congress has been playing with the idea of changing some patenting policies but has not taken serious steps to enact them yet. According to Cohn, WARF is worried about the potential elimination of the grace period, which currently allows researchers to remain eligible for patenting inventions within a year of publicly talking about their discoveries.
