When did academic scientists become interested in patenting their work? In 1974, Stanford and the University of California applied for a patent on the recombinant DNA process developed by Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer. The patent wasn’t granted until 1980, after the Supreme Court decided an unrelated case, Diamond v. Chakrabarty, that allowed the patenting of living organisms. Despite the presence of this developing legal framework, it took time before academic scientists thought of patents as relevant to their scientific goals, useful for their institutions and an ethical use of what was and still is largely publicly funded research. Pam Ancona, a Stony Brook chemistry PhD who is now an intellectual property expert at Roche Molecular Solutions, dates the shift to the 80’s and 90’s. The causes for this cultural shift are many and complex, but it was very evident for those in the field: “there was an explosion of” interest in patenting.
