Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
person will seek to race across 151 miles of the Sahara Desert over 6 days
in the Marathon Des Sables under his own power. YokyWorks' devices may
be designed to give a person a wider range of motion, travel, and speed. The
user may not be practiced in controlling such motion. In short, liability may
arise from any number of sources.
Unfortunately, lawsuits are prevalent in the United States, so it is worth
undertaking cost effective prophylactic strategies to minimize the risk and im-
pact of potential litigation. Most of these practices are common in the indus-
try. We use a non-profit corporation to shield individual volunteers and others
supporting our work from personal liability, we use individualized statements
of risk for each client tailored to the reasonably foreseeable risks, and we use
volunteer agreements to make sure our relationship with volunteers is clear
and well understood.
8.5.4 Intellectual Property Issues
YokyWorks is focused on solving technical problems for which no solution
exists. If a project matures to produce a solution, that solution addresses one
individual's problem. If the project is well selected, that solution may benefit
other similarly situated individuals. Inherent in the YokyWorks model is the
notion that the projects will produce new know-how and inventions. Because
the people contributing to these inventions may come from universities or
corporations there are commonly restrictions on creating patents that are
not owned by the university or corporations.
Unfortunately, simply being a non-profit does not shield YokyWorks from
such claims. Fortunately, many such claims are legally prohibited because
states like Washington and California prevent claims by employers against
work that is not related directly to the employer's business at the time of the
invention, or inventions that cannot be shown to demonstrably result from
work performed by the volunteer for the employer.
YokyWorks is still a young organization and it is unclear how it will lever-
age its intellectual property to effect the greatest good for the largest number
of beneficiaries. Alternatives include putting specific devices into production
or licensing the technology to people expert in manufacturing and marketing
these services.
8.6 Conclusion
Blending the research and grant funding skills of academia, the team man-
agement and building skills common to for-profit enterprises, and the donors
and volunteers that support non-profit companies has enabled YokyWorks to
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