National Dong Hwa University on Wednesday said it would ask Spiranthes Biotech, a company allegedly founded by Minister of Education Wu Maw-kuen (吳茂昆), to return patent rights to the school.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko Chih-en (柯志恩) on Monday accused Wu of illegally founding Spiranthes Biotech LLC in California, and in 2015, while he was its president, applying for a patent for a technology that belongs to the university.
University secretary-general Ku Chih-hsiung (古智雄) on Wednesday said the school did not know that Wu had founded Spiranthes Biotech.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
In March 2014, the university applied for patents in Taiwan and the US for a technology involving a “composition containing Spiranthes sinensis extract and the pharmaceutical applications thereof,” which Wu had invented with another professor and two students at the university, Ku said.
Before the application was approved in the US, Spiranthes Biotech applied to patent a technology of the same name under its name in the US, China, Japan and the EU, Ku said, adding that the university was unaware that the company had applied for the patents.
The university is unsure whether all applications filed by the company cover the exact same technology that it owns in Taiwan and the US, Ku said, adding that if they do, the firm could be encroaching on the school’s rights.
While Wu had previously said that inventors are allowed to first apply for patents and then negotiate with their school about transferring technology rights to themselves, Ku on Wednesday said that under the university’s regulations, inventors must apply for patents “in the university’s name” and that the percentage of revenues that inventors should share with the university is “non-negotiable” as it has been set down in its regulations.
“The university will inform the company that it owns the patent rights to the technology and demand the patent rights in China,” Ku said.
Taiwan’s Spiranthes Biotech, of which Wu’s wife is a board director, had applied to transfer the rights to the technology to itself, but the university rejected its request on March 28 on the grounds that the rights had already been transferred to Leadtek until Dec. 9, Ku said.
The KMT on Wednesday accused the Taiwanese company of claiming on its Web site and packaging that one of its products was made using the university’s patented technology.
The school would contact the company and ask it to remove the relevant promotional material, Ku said.
Before the university’s news conference on Wednesday, Wu had told reporters that he and other inventors were planning to give the patent rights to the university after they obtained them through the US company.
The company has “no stock options, no shareholders, no funding and no profit,” he said, adding that it was only founded to apply for patents in the US.
When asked why he was listed as a “member” of the US company, Wu said: “We were not very careful when we registered the company and did not specify who the CEO was. Under the US’ regulations, when there is no CEO, everyone’s name must be listed.”
James Oyang was later listed as the CEO because he was in the US, he said.
When asked about whether the Taiwanese company might have illegally used the university’s patented technology, Wu said: “The owner of Taiwan’s Spiranthes Biotech was one of the inventors. I do not understand why they cannot use the technology they invented in the first place.”
The company is already negotiating with the university about sharing the patent rights and “the university is completely aware of its use of the technology,” he said.
“I consider training these students [who founded the company] and helping them develop the products one of my greatest achievements at National Dong Hwa,” he said, adding: “That is the purpose of education.”
Additional reporting by Hua Meng-ching
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