Greg says:  See the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, the  Stevenson-Wydler
Innovation Act of 1980, including one of its amendments, the  Federal
Technology Transfer Act of 1986




Bayh-Dole changed the way government agencies and university's  operate.  
Many never noticed the change, and its been slow to trickle down  - but the 
bottom line is as Greg described.  And, there's money to be made  by whoever 
holds the patent - university/agency, etc. 
 
In my case, I and my partners developed and patented methods for  1) 
training bees, 2) smart hives, and more recently 3) an acoustic  scanner.  
 
Items 1 and 2 were done while we were employees at the Univ of  MT.  UM 
holds the patents, we are named as the innovators, and our tech  transfer 
company licenses these technologies from UM and pays royalties.
 
Item 3 was performed by employees of our tech transfer company under an  
SBIR award.  It was independent from UM, so we both hold and are listed as  
the inventors.  We don't pay royalties on our own invention, and UM does  not 
share in this particular technology.
 
Jerry

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Access BEE-L directly at:
http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A0=BEE-L