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"Some college administrators seem so distracted with fund raising, academic infighting, and community initiatives that they set up their emergency communications departments very poorly. Training is poor to nonexistent, secretaries are pressed into service with tremendous responsibilities for running 'notification systems' 24/7 and on weekends because no one else knows how to do it and the administration won’t pay for additional staff. Procedures are seat-of-the-pants and dependent on HIPPO (highest paid person’s opinion), except when something like Virginia Tech happens and there is some sort of scramble to do something different." --Donna
Most Colleges Avoid Risk Management, Report Says
U. of Georgia Paid 2 Fraternities $2.4-Million to Relocate, Contracts Show
The two were among five that houses on property where the university plans to build new academic facilities.
New Allegations in Admissions Controversy at U. of Illinois Suggest Ex-Provost Played a Role
Linda P.B. Katehi, the incoming chancellor of the University of California at Davis, has insisted she knew nothing of the admission of politically connected applicants at Illinois.
Sonoma State U. Foundation May Lose $350,000 on Loan to Former Board Member
The foundation will be forced to issue fewer scholarships in the 2010-11 academic year because of a diminished endowment, a university official said.
Court Overturns $2-Million Verdict for Former Coach at U. of Louisiana-Lafayette
The coach, one of the few African-Americans in big-time college football, was fired after three losing seasons. He sued, saying he had been dismissed because of his race.
The notorious vermin have forced Colorado State University at Fort Collins to cancel its annual Great Sofa Roundup, which allows students to donate unwanted couches.
College Suspends Student for Working in Gay Pornography | 58
President Obama's Visit to Notre Dame Carries Barely a Hint of Controversy That Preceded It | 58
Drug Sting Nabs 21 Students at U. of Illinois | 57
Faculty Members and Union Protest Staff Layoffs at Temple U. as 'Cruel' | 57
North Dakota Board's Vote Puts 'Fighting Sioux' Mascot on Thinner Ice | 57
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December 10, 2007
Patent-Infringement Windfall Goes to Israeli Institution
Two companies involved in the making and selling of the anticancer drug Erbitux will each pay $60-million to the technology-transfer organization of Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, resolving claims from a patent dispute.
The settlement, announced on Friday by ImClone Systems Inc. and Sanofi-Aventis SA, acknowledges that the Weizmann organization, called the Yeda Research and Development Company, is the sole owner of the patent.
In September 2006 a federal judge in New York ruled that three scientists at Weizmann deserved the patent for inventing the process used in making Erbitux, a drug for treating colon cancer that ImClone Systems makes.
ImClone has resolved another patent-infringement lawsuit over Erbitux involving a university. In September, it agreed to pay $65-million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Repligen Corporation to settle a 2004 lawsuit that was due to go to trial that day. The parties did not say how much of the settlement would go to MIT. —Goldie Blumenstyk
Posted on Monday December 10, 2007 | Permalink |Comments
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The Cost of Medicine in the USA just went up again. NSF, NIH, ... should make all researchers and scientists to agree not to sue in any cases of their research to be able to get public funds. To use public funds to do 90-95 percent of the research, and then to patent the creme under the auspices of the technology-transfer organizations is borderline fraud, and is also a breach of the public trust, social and scientific ethics. Congress should pass a law that clearly states the research results and any work derived from the results are co-owned and shared by the funding bodies who support the work, the actually researchers in the lab, the supervisors and also the tax payers. Otherwise the public support of research should be cut off totally and research should be totally supported by the technology-transfer organizations which are taking out the patents and filing law suits, further adding to the administrative cost of research, with no additional value added. The parasites in the research community should be eradicated.
— Karl Dec 10, 09:35 PM #
While Karl’s comments seem reasonable on the surface, the fact is that prior to passage of the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980 giving Universities rights to inventions made with federal grant dollars, products from research were largely not reaching the public. There are hundreds of incredible products that have resulted from commercializing university research (see AUTM’s Better World Reports) and we all have benefited from them. The parasites here are those stealing other people’s ideas and the patent system as a whole has done a pretty darn good job incentivizing commerce and protecting inventors.
— Lee Dec 11, 10:40 AM #