Research scientists know how to do a great many things. They can design experiments, carry them out, analyze data, process relevant literature, think independently, and go for long periods of time with no days off. All those things are highly relevant to working in a lab and are indispensable for any lab laborer. However, there are a lot of skills that are sometimes equally important, but are not taught in school, in seminars, or anywhere else and remain a black box, if not a liability.
In my own experience, one area that a great many scientists are woefully under-informed about is intellectual property law and how it applies to them (as opposed to the institution). Most don’t know how patents are obtained or what is considered a patentable discovery. No seminars are available to teach researchers how to assess whether their discovery/work is patentable, how the Patent Office works, or even rights of the investigator under a patent held by the institution.
Nature Network to the rescue. We have just started a group called Patent Law Primer. This group is for all scientists interested in intellectual property law and patents. Hopefully, this group will help educate scientists about the stuff they can’t learn in lab.
Post your questions about IP law (no specific cases please! The group was not built for personal legal advice) and have them answered by real live legal professionals. The two questions that I recently posted were kindly addressed by Rahan Uddin from Peer to Patent.
This, in my eyes, is the beauty of online networking. Have a question? Get an expert to answer it.
P.S. Let me know what you would like to see in this group by posting a comment here, or in the forum. I reeeaaallly (really) want this group to take off. I think it can do a lot of good.
An excellent idea, not knowing a damn thing about patent law I’ll be reading it with interest.
Oh Yay! Very glad to hear it. If you have any specific ideas or questions for the group, do let me know or just post them in the forum.
Awesome, I’ll sign up. I badly need all the help I can get this week!