Commercially Valuable Research Results

Your government-funded research at a university lab has produced results, published in a peer-reviewed journal, that have great potential for commercial application.  A for-profit corporation requests a copy of your data, saying that they want this for use in their own research and that they have no intention of commercializing your results.  You strongly believe that the potential for commerical application is compelling and unavoidable.  How should you proceed?

K5R says:  This situation arises frequently, and is always a source of concern.  Virtually every university has an intellectual property (IP) statement that is sent out simultaneously when either material or data are sent to other laboratories or to companies.  Since this is government funded research, the investigator has the obligation to comply with the request, but he should also demand that the material waiver IP form be signed first.

C4R says:  Since this is government funded research, the data are required to be placed in a public repository and made available to others.  The investigator must therefore comply with the request but can require that an intellectual property waiver be signed.