Physicist Seeks Alternative Fuels

First of all I disagree with your assessment of BP. This company was the first one to break ranks with the other oil companies and did so more than 10 years ago. BP was the first oil company to acknowledge that the climate was changing, that humans were the most likely cause, and that companies like BP have an obligation to do something about it. This took a lot of courage, and BP took a lot of heat from the other oil companies.

In our contract, research invented by University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory employees will belong to the University of California. Hence, much of the intellectual property rights of the research will belong to the University. The intellectual property that we might license to BP will have a clause in the contract we are currently finalizing: UC-Berkelely will have a right to reclaim the intellectual property if BP -- or any other company -- wants the intellectual property right solely in order to prevent the introduction of new technology or fair competition by others. They must show due diligence in getting the technology out into the market.