ARS Tecnica ran an article recently about a new rooftop material that radiates heat into outer space.  Scientists at Stanford published a paper in Nature last week describing how they used a silcon wafer layered with thin alternating layers of silicon dioxide and hafnium dioxide to radiate heat through the atmosphere into space.

The mirrored device also reflects sunlight preventing additional heat from the sun from being absorbed in the device's shadow.  The brilliant part of the invention is that the device converts heat into a specific infrared wavelength, which wavelength can pass through the earth's atmosphere. Stanford's sci-fi cartoon illustration is below.

Aawswath Raman was the primary author and researcher at Stanford.  Marc Anoma, Linxiao Zhu, Eden Rephaeli, and Shanhui Fan were also listed as authors.   A practical example of radiant heat is the heat coming off of those crazy looking dish heaters when you enter Costco in the winter (picture of Costco heater below – for any California readers wondering what winter is . . .). 

So what kind of intellectual property do they (Raman et al., Nature or Stanford) have?

  1. potential patentability of the process of creating a layered wafer for converting heat to a specific wavelength
  2. potential patentability of the layered wafer itself
  3. potential patentability of the method of converting heat to a specific wavelength using the wafer and radiating it
  4. potential trade secrets (I don't know what they are . . . ) to the extent not disclosed in a patent application
  5. copyright in the published article

Here comes the hard part, as between the three of Raman et al., Nature and Stanford, who owns each property?

Likely, Stanford owns them all, which is typical in a university setting.  Disclaimer that I don't have all the details, but here is why it is likely that Stanford owns it all:

  • Patents: Stanford's Inventions, Patents and Licensing Policy states that: "All potentially patentable inventions conceived or first reduced to practice in whole or in part by members of the faculty or staff (including student employees) of the University in the course of their University responsibilities or with more than incidental use of University resources, shall be disclosed on a timely basis to the University. Title to such inventions shall be assigned to the University, regardless of the source of funding, if any."
  • Possible exception on Patents:  If Raman is a postdoc and not faculty?  Sorry, the policy later states: "In addition to faculty and staff (including student employees), the provisions of the University's patent policy will extend to: all graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.  If some of the other folks listed happen to be undergraduate students (and not employees), they might retain an interest."
  • Trade Secrets: Stanford's policy on proprietary information states: "Proprietary information arising out of University work (e.g., actual and proposed terms of research agreements, financial arrangements, or confidential business information) shall be owned by the University."
  • Copyright:  This was a toss-up between Nature and Stanford for ownership.  However, Nature takes an exclusive publishing license rather than assignment of the copyright in published articles (some other day we'll talk about whether there is a difference).  But, Stanford's policy on copyright states: "It is the policy of the University that all rights in copyright shall remain with the creator unless the work is a work-for-hire (and copyright vests in the University under copyright law), is supported by a direct allocation of funds through the University for the pursuit of a specific project, is commissioned by the University, makes significant use of University resources or personnel, or is otherwise subject to contractual obligations."

My assumptions included: the researchers are graduate students or above, the project required significant university equipment, there were no special agreements, and there are no other material unpublished facts.

Is that what you expected?  Stanford's policies are typical of most U.S. universities.  As a result, it can sometimes be tricky to hire a university faculty member as a consultant or a graduate student to invent/create content for your company, especially if they will be using university resources.  Often, these arrangements requires a custom agreement with the university, such as a sponsored research agreement.

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