Researchers bypass TTOs to get patents

[Brenda M. "Preserving the Fruits of Labor: Impediments to University Inventor Mobility," Tennessee Law Review 89, no. 1 (Fall 2021): 1-66 heinonline gdi-tm]

The employer-university typically has a superior ownership interest in inventors' intellectual property and other invention­ related materials by virtue of employment and other agreements.163 The Bayh-Dole Act allows patents resulting from federally-funded research to be assigned to universities. 164 Some faculty inventors, however, circumvent university procedures requiring coordination with the university's technology transfer office (TTO) and apply for patents on their own.165 One study found that over 42% of university inventors who obtained patents bypassed their university's TTO at least once.166 Other university inventors have launched firms without obtaining university licenses, or they have entered into financially beneficial relationships with firms aligned with their research, effectively creating a "gray market" for inventions.167

Despite entering into agreements and contracts that vest ownership in invention-related materials with the university­ employer, some inventors may not fully appreciate that items incorporating their personal reflections and a career's worth of data and effort are within the university-employer's ownership realm.168 Items such as laboratory notebooks, data, and raw materials may capture the inventor's thoughts and expression. 169 In addition, institutional norms with regard to academic research impose responsibility on university scientists to protect the data arising from both external and internal sources.17 For example, funding agencies • typically expect principal investigators to exercise responsibility over the management of data.171 In the process of publication, inventors are generally required to follow rules about providing access to data to ensure reproducibility.172 Perhaps these requirements lead some inventors to conclude, mistakenly, that with great responsibility comes great power.173