All Professors Create Equally: Why Faculty Should Have Complete Control over the Intellectual Property Rights in Their Creations
![handle is hein.journals/hastlj47 and id is 249 raw text is: All Professors Create Equally:
Why Faculty Should Have Complete
Control over the Intellectual Property
Rights in Their Creations
by
SUNIL R. KULKARNI*
Introduction
Spring was in the air at State U., and so too was the spirit of
creativity among State U.'s professors.1 Mechanical engineering pro-
fessor A created a better mousetrap out of her custom-made Kevlar-
boron composite material. History professor B finished a book about
modem American culture titled How Gilligan's Island, Not the Brady
Bunch, Better Reflects America. Computer science professor C com-
pleted a computer program that would choose a person's ideal mate
based on that person's favorite frozen dinners.
In terms of capitalizing on these creations,2 there are large dispar-
ities among A, B, and C. Assuming A's mousetrap is patentable,3
State U. owns all rights in it. A gets a cut of the potential profits but
* J.D. Candidate, 1996; B.S., University of California, Berkeley, 1993. I thank Than
Luu, Erin Connors Morton, Francine Swink, and Sheryl Wolcott for their comments on
earlier versions of this Note. In addition, I thank my parents, Ravi and Anjalie Kulkarni,
and my sister, Madhur Kulkarni, for always being there when I needed them, even when I
didn't know that I needed them.
1. Cf Richard Hovey, Spring, in TiE HoME BOOK OF AMERICAN QUOTATIONs 393
(Bruce Bohle ed., 1967):
Spring in the world!
And all things are new!
2. Throughout this Note, creations is used as a blanket term encompassing patent-
able inventions and copyrightable works. See U.S. CONGRESS OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGY
ASSESSMENT, INTELLECr-AL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN AN AGE OF ELECrRONICS AND INFOR-
MAION 127-28 (1986) (defining creators as scholars, poets, writers, artists, inventors,
and others who produce intellectual works). Creations also includes technological
know-how not handled by patent or copyright regimes, but this Note does not focus on
such creations. See infra note 10 for a discussion of technological know-how.
3. Receiving patent protection is often an arduous task. See Graham v. John Deere
Co., 383 U.S. 1, 19 (1966) (He who seeks to build a better mousetrap today has a long
path to tread before reaching the Patent Office.).
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