Eleven of the universities that are the most active and successful in commercializing their inventions issued a series of suggestions last week for how institutions can best license their patents while serving the public good.
Among the suggestions: sue only when necessary; avoid licensing patents to companies that do not seriously commit to developing the inventions; be more stingy about exclusive licenses; and, particularly for inventions related to human health, find ways to carve out protections in licensing deals so that poor people and those in developing nations are not barred by patent rights from gaining affordable access to life-saving cures.