23/04/03

US university to fight patent ruling

By: David Malakoff

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>US university to fight patent ruling</h1>
<h4>By: David Malakoff</h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p>Duke University will this week challenge a court ruling made last year that effectively puts a stop to scientists borrowing patented technology for non-commercial basic research.<BR><BR>In October 2002, the US federal court ruled in favour of physicist John Madey — inventor of the free-electron laser — who accused the university of infringing his patents by continuing to experiment with his lasers. But universities say that such a decision sets a precedent that would hinder research by forcing universities to obtain permission before using patented technologies, a time-consuming and costly process.<BR><BR>If the Supreme Court decides to take the case, it will probably be heard some time after October 2003. But some observers predict that Congress may want to have the final word on the right balance between patent holders and the needs of academic researchers.<BR><BR><a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/299/5603/26a?ijkey=mqKrWjUSyIMAY&keytype=ref&siteid=sci" target="_blank" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/tracking/external/'+this.href);" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to full <em>Science</em> news story</A><BR><BR>Reference: <em>Science</em> 299, 26 (2003)</p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/news/us-university-to-fight-patent-ruling/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/news/us-university-to-fight-patent-ruling/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

Duke University will this week challenge a court ruling made last year that effectively puts a stop to scientists borrowing patented technology for non-commercial basic research.

In October 2002, the US federal court ruled in favour of physicist John Madey — inventor of the free-electron laser — who accused the university of infringing his patents by continuing to experiment with his lasers. But universities say that such a decision sets a precedent that would hinder research by forcing universities to obtain permission before using patented technologies, a time-consuming and costly process.

If the Supreme Court decides to take the case, it will probably be heard some time after October 2003. But some observers predict that Congress may want to have the final word on the right balance between patent holders and the needs of academic researchers.

Link to full Science news story

Reference: Science 299, 26 (2003)