How Science-Born Inventions Failed in Court

The science held. What failed was the system around it.

A poster shown for about three days. A thesis on a library shelf. Two signatures on one invention. A verdict of more than $234 million, lost on one word.

In most of these ten US court cases, no one asked the court to doubt the science. On the author's reading, what decided each outcome happened long before anyone reached the courtroom: who owned the work, what was shown and when, and what the patent's words covered.

Dr Nadir Yildirim has worked on several sides of the table where research becomes products and companies. Reading the court records together, he finds one pattern. The gain is made at the start.

The answer is not to copy another university's model. It is a tailor-made system, built for your own institution, its laws, its people and its mindset, and in place before the first poster goes up.

Each chapter ends with one key solution. The book closes with 100 practical solutions, organised by chapter and indexed by role, for researchers, technology transfer offices, university leaders, founders and investors.