It may be so that "everybody is doing it at other institutions" but the way
it is done is likely to be governed by institutional policies. Of course,
there could be some renegades out there who ignore them and haven't been
noticed yet!

As a state institution, LSU has specific policies designed (primarily) to
prevent violating the State ethics policy. We have a disclosure
requirement for ALL outside income, associated with an advance approval
process. If the income is for an activity related to the purpose for which
the person was hired (e.g. research and education in a particular area)
permission would normally be denied. The individial would have the option
of proposing a sponsored project. Research subcontracted by a faculty-
owned business to the university is subject to a different policy. The
faculty member having this type of conflict of interest must recuse
himself from negotiation on behalf of the University, and the Univ.
appoints someone else to handle it (often the dir. of tech tx.).

University facilities cannot be used for non-LSU use except under an
approved contracutal agreement. I cannot elaborate on all the other
ramifications of your hypothetical case. We have had little experience with
SBIR, but I am sure we would find ways of accommodating it within our
policies.

The employment contract with LSU provides that ALL inventions of LSU
employees are the property of LSU, no matter when and where they are
conceived. In the SBIR scenario, the University would most likely negotiate
a licensing agreement with the faculty member.

I believe the LSU policies make the "time ownership" question irrelevant.

On Tue, 5 Dec 1995 12:02:20 -0500, Doug Wilkerson, Ph.D. wrote:

>     I am posting this question on both RESADM-L and TECHNO-L, so I
>apologize to those individuals who subscribe to both!
>
>     I need to know how other institutions handle the issue of faculty
>engaging in (or initiating) outside business activity which is directly
>related to their responsibilities as a faculty member. I have a
>faculty member who says that "everybody is doing this at other
>institutions", so hopefully someone can help me.  Perhaps a hypothetical
>case would help:
>
>     A basic science faculty member is hired for educational, research
>and service duties.  The faculty member proposes to take 2 months
>vacation time (or maybe sabbatical time) and set up a small business which
>will apply for an SBIR grant (phase I) to develop biomedical educational
>materials for courses similar to those being taught by this person at our
>institution. Presumably some of these materials may even be used by this
>institution (either as gifts or as purchases), but these materials
>presumably will also be sold to other institutions.  After the 2 months
>vacation time, the faculty member proposes to return to work, but if the
>SBIR is funded, the required 51% of his/her effort would be paid for by
>the company and the remainder by the institution.  That is, he/she
>presumably would go to a part-time faculty status for the period of the
>SBIR and then return to full-time status at the end of the SBIR.
>
>     In addition to the possibility of conflict of commitment, I am
>concerned about intellectual property issues.  For example, once this
>"door is opened", what is to prevent anyone with a patentable idea from
>setting up a small business and claiming that the invention/discovery was
>made while working at the small business, rather than while working at the
>institution?
>
>     This issue suggests another question.  How much of a faculty member's
>time does an institution "own"?  Does it "own" 24 hours per day or only 8
>hours/day?  Should activities a faculty member engages in (including
>establishing a business related to the scope of his/work for the
>institution) during the 16 hours/day he/she is not working at the
>institution be of any concern to the institution?  My initial thought
>would be that if it were not, it would play havoc with institutional patent
>policies, since all valuable intellectual property would probably be
>conceived or committed to practice during those hours the faculty member
>was not working at the institution.
>
>     Does anyone take the position that anything invented/discovered by a
>faculty member which is within the scope of his/her employment must be
>assigned to the institution regardless of when (nights, weekends or
>vacation) or where (home or mother-in-law's garage) it is invented or
>discovered?  How tenable is this position?
>
>     I hope that someone can provide some wisdom to help me sort out
>these issues. THANKS!
>
>Doug Wilkerson, Ph.D.           VOICE:  (419) 381-4252
>Assoc. V.P. for Research        FAX:    (419) 381-4262
>Professor of Pharmacology       e-mail: xxxxxx@GEMINI.MCO.EDU
>Medical College of Ohio
>3000 Arlington Ave.
>Toledo, OH 43614

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