DuPont gives Purdue patents
for pesticides
By Kurt Esposito
Assistant
Campus Editor
Usually when people think of gifts given to universities,
they think of land and money, not information.
On Monday it was announced that DuPont, a science
company that develops products to be used in everyday life, has donated
more than 30 U.S. and foreign patents for two agricultural pesticides
— along with the toxicology and field data — to the Purdue
Research Foundation.
The two compounds were developed by DuPont to be
used with agricultural pests. The compounds were determined to be safe
and effective to be used in the urban and industrial areas, but DuPont
determined these areas are not part of its marketing plan.
Rather than storing the pesticides, the company
decided to make the patents available to Purdue for research.
This is not the first time DuPont has donated a
technology to a university after it determined the technology was not
part of its marketing plan.
Tom Woods, DuPont's director of intellectual assets
and management, said it was an "intellectual gift."
He said the pesticides are partially developed
and DuPont has determined the pesticides would be better put to use
by Purdue. "What happens now is unpredictable," he said.
DuPont does not retain any rights to the technology
and will not share any future license revenues. The full value of the
compounds cannot be known until their future uses have been determined.
Woods said the future uses of the pesticides could
be beneficial to "Purdue and eventually society at large."
Gary Bennett, professor of entomology and director
of Purdue's Center for Urban and Industrial Pest Management, said the
patents would be used to help the center develop ways to protect people's
health, property and food supplies.
He said the compounds would be tested to see if
they are effective against ticks, fleas, ants, cockroaches, mosquitoes
and other pests. One compound was found to work against beetles, while
the other was found to work against mites.
One of the compounds can stop the development of
the pests' exoskeleton, not allowing it to produce viable offspring
or survive molting.
Bennett said the pesticides could be placed in
metal containers or in cracks, crevices and soils to keep them away
from humans, pets and other living things not intended to be affected
by the pesticides.
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