Gatorade
Matt Hermes

The ownership decision balances the legal requirements for patent - material that is new, useful and not obvious and the proper balance of the rights of the University the public through the government and the inventors who applied basic chemical principals in a new and unanticipated way.

Gatorade 18. Discussion Case #2: Who Owns Gatorade?

An invention is something new, useful, and not obvious. Patents protect the rights of inventors to their inventions. A United States Patent prohibits anyone but its owners from making, using or selling the invention as described by the claims in the patent for twenty years after the inventors file their patent application. Drs. Cade, Shires, and their coworkers made an agreement with A. J. Stokely to commercialize Gatorade®. The doctors and Stokely began to prepare U.S. patents that, under rules in force at the time, would by law exclude others from making the beverage for 17 years after the patent issued. As soon as the University and the government recognized Gatorade® was becoming successful, they, too, made claims on Gatorade® ownership.

The University stated the doctors were employees of the University, thus the benefits of work the doctors did as employees belonged to the University. After all, it was the practice in U.S. industry that inventions made by employees belonged to the employer. The University should own the patents and benefit from any income.

The U.S. government showed they were paying a small part of the salaries of the doctors through funds granted to the University for another project. The government claimed they also owned Gatorade®. The government claimed there should be no patents and anyone should have the rights to make the beverages.

Stokely and the doctors showed the doctors had no agreement with the University to make the  inventions property of the University. Stokely and the doctors insisted their work was not part of the government contract and they claimed they had the right to sell their rights to whomever they wished. Stokely and the doctors claimed ownership of the patents should remain with them.

Exercise:

i. Prepare for class by;

• Reading about U.S. Patent Law and practices.
• Answering three questions about patents.
• Listing two inventions that have come into use in your lifetime.  Describe how each was new, useful and not obvious at the time of its invention:

• Invention	New Features	Usefulness	Not Obvious
  Exampe:  TV Remote	Change TV channel from a distance	Ease of Viewing, Channel Surfing	Wasn't obvious that you could use waves to operate switch in home appliance.

• Referring to the dispute over who owns Gatorade®, choose a side: Doctors, University or Government. Write a short statement of  your position as to how to share ownership of Gatorade®.

ii. In class, break into groups, each group consisting of at least one representative of the three sides and try to find agreement as to how to proceed.