April 6, 2007

Intellectual Property's Land Mines

A lengthy fracas over some Purdue U. biomedical patents shows the risks in trying to take technology to market

By Goldie Blumenstyk

At most universities, the professors who are the most important inventors and brightest scientific stars are usually treated as the toasts of the town.

Purdue University took a different tack with Stephen F. Badylak, leader of a research team there that discovered a technology for healing tissue and organs that has helped tens of thousands of patients and brought in millions in royalties. In September 2002, the institution fired him, and then, nine months later, sued him in federal