E9: Patenting Science

Do you know what happens when scientists patent their ideas? Do you know who gets the money from those patents? Did you know that scientists even patent things at all? We weren't so sure about these topics back in our Optogenetics episode, so we brought in Penn Law alum/fellow neuroscience grad student Jozsef Meszaros to tell us about this interesting and under-covered topic for scientists. We ask if academics are allowed to use patented objects without a licence, who owns the rights to a patent when research is publicly-funded, how do scientists feel about the patent system, and why does the patent system even exist? We also work through who benefits and who is getting shafted in this system between scientists, universities, tax-payers, the government, and corporations.