Columbia University's Ignoble Prize

This year's Nobel Prize for Medicine was shared by Columbia University's Richard Axel, who in the early 1990s helped uncover the genes responsible for our sense of smell. Columbia -- my alma mater -- justifiably should be proud of Dr. Axel's achievements.

On the other hand, Columbia and Dr. Axel should be ashamed of the way they have abused the other great achievement of Dr. Axel's career. Not only did the molecular biologist discover the smelling genes, but way back in 1980 he was the first scientist to splice genes in a way that enables mass production of proteins.

His patent No. 4,399,216 was assigned to Columbia and soon became one of the mainstay technologies of biotechnology research and biotechnology commercial production. The patent has generated over a quarter billion dollars -- that's right, over $250 million -- for Columbia with, presumably, a cut for Dr. Axel.

The patent expired in 2000. But that didn't stop Dr. Axel or Columbia's patent lawyers. Back in 1995 they filed a patent application very similar to the original invention. In the patent legal trade this strategy is called a submarine patent because it lays dormant for years before surfacing as a way to make new royalty claims.

While that was pending, the university enlisted Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH and another Columbia alumnus) to sneak a rider onto legislation that would have given Columbia another 15 months of exclusivity on the original patent. It died once it was exposed that a prestigious university was playing patent extension games with a technology that had been financed by taxpayers. (All of Dr. Axel's work has been NIH-funded).

But the Patent and Trademark Office soon rode to their rescue. In 2002, the PTO, whose motto appears to be, "who cares about originality; we'll grant the patent and let the courts sort it out," issued patent No. 6,455,275 to Dr. Axel and two colleagues. It was again assigned to his employer. Columbia promptly filed new royalty claims against all the biotech companies that had stopped paying on the old patent. They, of course, sued.

According to today's Columbia Spectator, the PTO announced in May of this year that it would review the second Axel/Columbia patent.

Dr. Axel is obviously a brilliant scientist. His work has enriched mankind and he deserves all the kudos he's received in the past 24 hours. But his employer would do the world a favor if they'd call their patent lawyers and tell them to stop levying their tax on the global health care system.

Posted by gooznews at October 5, 2004 03:11 PM