Ethics Case Studies in Biodesign

Case 15 - A Post-doctoral Entrepreneur

You are a post-doctoral fellow exploring mechanisms of intestinal absorption in the lab of your faculty supervisor. Both you and she are excited by the insights you have gained and your discussions lead to the understanding that you may have a way to block absorption of specific fats in a manner that could be beneficial clinically. She includes you in meetings she is having with a friend who has started two companies previously. This friend believes the commercial potential for your findings could be significant and he tells you he is willing to fund the legal fees to set up a company to explore this technology. You have heard stories of such “Silicon Valley Start-ups” and you find this very exciting.

• What responsibilities do you and your supervisor have regarding patenting the intellectual property you have developed?
• Can the University’s Office of Technology Licensing (OTL) advise you or help you with this patenting process?
• Who owns the IP?
• What needs to happen before the “serial entrepreneur” can get the IP for his company?
• If he were able to get the IP for the new company, how would you like to be involved?
• What Stanford policies govern your involvement, assuming you stay in your status as a post-doctoral fellow?
• Who can you talk to at Stanford to learn more about your status and how to avoid conflict of interests in this situation?