Patent Office Must Control Funds, MIT Leader Says (Transcript)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Susan Hockfield said during a panel discussion in Washington that Congress must keep its pledge to let U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, or PTO, have control over all the fees it collects to promote innovation and spur job creation. The Oct. 5 event, sponsored by Harvard University and the Business Roundtable and hosted by Bloomberg News, centered on ways to spur innovation.

Participants included Drew Gilpin Faust, president of Harvard University; former Michigan Governor John Engler, president of the Business Roundtable; Albert R. Hunt, an executive editor at Bloomberg; Bill Green, chairman of consulting firm Accenture Plc; Tim Solso, CEO of diesel truck-engine maker Cummins Inc.; Susan Hockfield, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Sally Mason, president of the University of Iowa, Ellen Kullman, CEO of DuPont Co.; James Goodnight, CEO of SAS Institute Inc.; Freeman Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; John Hennessy, president of Stanford University; Linda Katehi, chancellor of the University of California-Davis; John Lechleiter, CEO of drugmaker Eli Lilly & Co., and Teresa Sullivan, president of the University of Virginia. Following is a transcript of the session on patents, moderated by Susan Goldberg, an executive editor at Bloomberg.