I have an interesting story regarding a patent dispute right here at Tufts. I have a friend who is a computer engineer; last year for his final project, he and a partner created an MP3 specifically for excercising. Basically, it would adapt a persons heart rate and then adjust the beat of the music to match this beat. The specifics are confusing, but they did research which showed that this would promote more effective excercise. Filing for a patent was not required, but they were encouraged to do it by their teacher and the university. Tufts paid for most of the filing costs (including the lawyer) with the understanding that my friend and his partner would still retain the basic rights to the patent. However, recently my friend recieved a letter from the university stating that Tufts had the right to retain 90% of any revenure the patent would eventually generate. My friend has hired a lawyer to fight the university, but this had already cost him and his partner a lot of money. I am a little unsure about some of the details, but it seems a little unfair--especially considering that the university originally agreed to something like a 40/60 split. I am hoping to find out a little more about this situation tonight or tomorrow. If so I will post it.