Facebook IPO Belies Perils of Collegiate Inventors

Abstract:     
This week’s Facebook IPO, already the gravy train for an army of lawyers and bankers, will reportedly transform a thousand Facebook employees into overnight millionaires. In all likelihood, few of these soon-to-be tycoons realize they owe a great deal of thanks to Harvard University for their newfound wealth.

What did Harvard do? Nothing. Rather, it’s something the school didn’t do: claim Facebook for itself.

You see, Harvard University could have asserted a stronger claim to the company than the Winklevoss twins and Paul Ceglia combined. In 2004 Mark Zuckerberg and friends started Facebook while enrolled in Harvard, working in a Harvard dormitory, and using Harvard’s computer network. Simply by using university resources, Facebook’s founders opened the door for school officials to later assert ownership of the website’s core technology . . . .

Number of Pages in PDF File: 4

Keywords: student inventors, university technology transfer, university TTLO, university TTO, university patent, Facebook, Facebook IPO, Harvard, Netscape, University of Illinois

JEL Classification: I22, K00, O34

Accepted Paper Series