Trump’s Gov Grabs Cuts from Chips to College Patents
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, apparently moonlighting as America’s new patent tax collector, declared that while taxpayers shelled out $50 billion for university research patents, their cut was exactly zero. After scooping 10% of Intel and 15% of Nvidia’s China chip sales, now the Trump admin wants half the profits from your kid’s fancy degree inventions. Harvard and UC system got letters demanding patent lists faster than your professor can say 'publish or perish.' Lutnick even promises that if this patent grab pans out, Social Security deficits could vanish like your university’s free parking spots. Bayh-Dole Act, which usually gave unis patent ownership, just met its new landlord.
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When you pay $50 billion and get zero back, it’s not gratitude, it’s political mugging. Lutnick asking Harvard and UC to cough up patent profits like some outdated debt collector at a yard sale. Taxpayers as silent shareholders? Always fun when government gets shareholder FOMO.
Why just get a cut from giant corporations when you can also tax Academia’s ingenuity? Because nothing says 'innovation' like Uncle Sam installing a sneaky toll booth on chem labs.
Trump administration’s latest: cornering the market on university patents. They took Intel, Nvidia, why not Harvard too? Next up: taxing your kid’s big ideas for college debt relief.
Source: Axios | Published: 9/10/2025 | Author: Ben Berkowitz
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