Dr. Jayshree,

I always have such a challenge with the context of your questions because they are very control oriented, as opposed to letting events flow freely to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship. I can speak partially about this topic, but only partially, and I hope the information I provide is of help.

I am in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and I have had two conversations within the last number of months related to your question.

Discussion 1 – was with a Hospital Foundation executive director. The individual responded to some very pointed questions that I posed to him. Much research is funded by our federal government and by our provincial government, as well as privately funded within the hospital.

The advantage of the research was the ability to retain the brightest and best in a particular field of medicine. This provided health benefits to all Manitobans. The hospital and the foundation perception was that research benefits the individuals of our country and our province because these people can provide leading edge healthcare that would not otherwise be possible, regardless of the benefits of any intellectual property.

Discussion 2: Was with the head of a technology transfer office at a local university. The funding from their office would help professors at the university to sell their intellectual property rights from their research. The advantage for the professor is the potential to create tremendous personal wealth for him/her self on the slim chance that the portion of intellectual property that they retain could create tremendous wealth for themselves. In this way, when trying to attract a professor to our local university, we can compete against other universities that offered a higher salary, but do not offer the potential for personal profit from intellectual property.

Perhaps these 2 discussions that I convey here will be of help with the question that you pose.