by rinagoldfield Tue Sep 17, 2013 6:00 pm
Hi hyewonkim89!
Let’s go through what we know about these different institutional models’ attitudes towards IP. We’re looking for a model that contains a lot of uncertainty.
First, (A) discusses commercial firms. The passage doesn’t tell us too much about commercial firms! We only know that faculty researchers are "sought and sponsored by research corporations or have consulting contracts with commercial firms" and that these entrepreneurship opportunities are "tempting" (lines 13-14, 18). Let’s hold onto (A) since the relationship between commercial firms and intellectual property isn’t super clear.
(B) describes supramaximalist universities, which assert "ownership not only of all intellectual property produced by faculty in the course of their employment...but also for any invention or patent rights from faculty activities..." (lines 27-32). The supramaximalist model is pretty clear: the faculty own nothing. Eliminate (B); this model lacks uncertainty.
(C) describes maximalist universities. The maximalist model is also clear; it allows faculty ownership of a particular set of inventions, namely those that "do not arise either in the course of the faculty’s employment or from the faculty’s use of university resources" (lines 33-37). Eliminate (C); this model also lacks uncertainty.
(D) describes resource-provider universities, which claim intellectual products in cases when the university’s time and facilities are "significantly used." But what is "significant use?" Well, that "is a matter of institutional judgement" (lines 43-45). The resource-provider institution thus exercises a lot of subjective judgement in determining what intellectual products it owns. "Significant use" leaves room for uncertainty; hold onto (D).
We can eliminate (E) since the faculty-oriented university also clearly defines its relationship to IP. Researchers at such institutions can safely assume that they "own their own intellectual products" (lines 61-62).
So between (A) and (D). (D) describes a model that CLEARLY contains uncertainty. (A) describes a model that apparently strongly appeals to faculty researchers who want to own their intellectual products. We can infer that commercial firms offer faculty researches some degree of assurance of their IP rights (or else why would their offers be so tempting?). (D) is thus more strongly supported than (A).
Hope that helps.