<p>I have herd that Stanford is starting to charge a certain percentage off of any profit that is made from any invention that is developed in their labs (grad)? I think it's like a whopping 60%. Does anyone know if this is true?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>All schools will have some kind of technology transfer agreement where the university is listed on the patent for any inventions created in their labs. At my school, the creators (of which there may be 5, 6, or more) will share 50% of the profits before $100k and 40% after $100k. </p>
<p>I am a biomedical engineer. Let's say that I license the rights to your invention and start a company. I might be selling a device that uses a more efficient method to read gene chips or something. A complete system like this might sell for around $200k. Of course, there are manufacturing costs, legal costs, etc, so the profit will vary. </p>
<p>The other thing is that much of the money taken by the university is put back into the department and the university and the university will cover the costs of getting the patent. They will also invest money in any start-ups that result from the technology. They help out with legal issues, too.</p>
<p>Many professors in engineering have made quite a bit of money from their technology licensing agreements. I guess it would be better to take 100% of the profit if you could afford the other costs associated with the process. Of course, any extra money from patent royalties is great when you're on a graduate student stipend :). If anyone has any first hand experience with this it would be interesting to hear about it.</p>
<p>I think all schools take a large percentage of any patent royalties. The reason is because most of the stuff that gets invented is done within the university buildings, using university equipment, and talking to university hired professors. Also, the university files all the necessary paperwork for the patent. If you feel you want a patent all to yourself, better just start working in the garage and see how far you get.</p>