# What becomes of major breakthroughs at universities?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-becomes-of-major-breakthroughs-at-universities/365848>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 24, 2006, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-becomes-of-major-breakthroughs-at-universities/365848 "2006-07-24T17:46:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-becomes-of-major-breakthroughs-at-universities/365848/1 "2006-07-24T17:46:57Z")

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Let’s say that you have a team of researchers at University of Chicago and they find some chemical cocktail that makes cancerous cells revert to being normal cells. Yay! A cure for cancer! But what’s the usual route it takes to become something sold in pill form by some major pharmacutical company? I know there’s all sorts of testing and whatnot to be done but I’m more curious about patenting rights, who gets paid, etc than the medical/scientific end.

Do research universities sell off the rights to their discoveries? Do they enter the public domain so no one can patent the afore mentioned cockatail? Are they licensed?

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-becomes-of-major-breakthroughs-at-universities/365848/2 "2006-07-24T18:08:46Z")

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University of Wisconsin uses the [Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Alumni_Research_Foundation) ([WARF](http://www.warf.org/) ) for technology transfer:

> [@](#):
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> Since its founding, WARF has served the University of Wisconsin-Madison scientific community by patenting the discoveries of UW-Madison researchers and licensing these technologies to leading companies in Wisconsin, the United States and worldwide. In this way, WARF also facilitates the use of UW-Madison research for the maximum benefit of society. WARF distributes the income from commercial licenses to the UW-Madison, the inventors and their departments.

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**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-becomes-of-major-breakthroughs-at-universities/365848/3 "2006-07-24T18:21:46Z")

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[Here](http://www.ucop.edu/ott/genresources/pat-pol.html) is the University of California’s Patent Policy. And [here](http://researchadmin.uchicago.edu/regulations/intellectual_prop.shtml), actually, are links to the University of Chicago’s policies on same. Essentially, it looks like in both cases, the University owns the patent on whatever it is and licenses it appropriately; but the inventor gets a certain return on her inventiveness (though how much that amounts to is probably left vague.)

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-becomes-of-major-breakthroughs-at-universities/365848/4 "2006-07-24T19:22:19Z")

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[QUOTE=MikeS]  
the inventor gets a certain return on her inventiveness (though how much that amounts to is probably left vague.)  
[/QUOTE]  
[Here’s the split through WARF (as of 2001):](http://info.gradsch.wisc.edu/research/rescommittee/royaltyshare.html)

> [@](#):
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> First $100,000 of Income Per License:  
> 20% to Inventor  
> 70% to Research Program of Inventor  
> 10% to Graduate School