The Morehouse School of Medicine leads all HBCUs with 63 patents secured in the last 20 years, according to a new study published by the Plug Daily.
The study is a follow-up to the publication’s study from last month, which showed that HBCUs collectively secured just over 100 patents between 1969 and 2012.
The new data shows high activity in patent registration over the last decade, with HBCUs securing the highest number of registrations in science, technological and medical fields.
But the report also shows how institutional mission shapes the probability of schools producing revenue-bearing intellectual properties.
From the Plug Daily:
Schools with smaller endowments tend to have less than 20 patents to their name while schools like Howard University, holding the largest endowment of any HBCU, has a total of 53 patents. Despite the overall trend, there are a few exceptions that are under or overperforming. Morehouse School of Medicine, for example, has a comparatively small endowment of $56 million, however, the institution produced the most patents of any HBCU. On the other hand, Spelman College, which boasts an endowment of $389 million, has only produced eight patents over the last four decades.
Congratulations to Morehouse School of Medicine; however, you cannot compare it to Spelman College. A central component to the School of Medicine is medical research, which results in patents. Spelman is a liberal arts college. Research is not a central feature to its mission. Therefore, patents will be rare. The two institutions are quite different in their goals.
The comparison to Howard University is apt. Howard has colleges of medicine, dentistry, nursing (and engineering). Certainly, Howard should be leading the HBCUs, particularly as Howard receives an annual appropriation of $230 Million from the federal government. Morehouse School of Medicine does not. (The operating revenues for Morehouse School of Medicine is $166M. For Spelman, it is $113M. Howard has a operating budget of about $800M.)