Ethical issues for Sandra
It is the goal of every inventor to make a financial profit out of their inventions. For Sandra’s team to make financial gains out of her invention, she’ll need to license the usage rights to a corporation that can keep the production and can also sponsor her in her quest to pursue innovative scientific research for the next generation of biofuel technology. This way, Sandra’s team will earn royalties from the production, and she’ll also realize her dreams of coming up with the next generation of biofuel, which is less detrimental as compared to the first-generation biofuels. But before that, she should consider two ethical issues. Will the deal be environmentally friendly? And do they have a shared goal?
If Sandra accepts the offer, three things will happen. First, she’ll grant the corporation an exclusive license to produce first-generation biofuels. Secondly, she’ll give license rights for any derivative intellectual property for the next-generation biofuels, and finally, there will be mass production of the first-generation biofuels.
This means that the corporation will increase the production of first-generation biofuels to become the dominant producer of biofuels in the U.S and maximize their profits. The ethical issue with this is that Sandra is aware of the adverse effects of the mass production of first-generation biofuels. By allowing the deal, she would have gone against her moral obligation as a professional by ignoring her right to act according to ethical conscience and to decline assignments where the variance of moral opinion exists (Grohman, Lee, Gans, Tacca & Brown, 2017). The second ethical professional issue she’ll need to consider is, does the corporation have the same vision? Do they want to venture into innovative scientific research?
In any deal that involves the production and licensing, without a shared goal, the licensor will lose (Baligar & Joshi, 2017). For the agreement to be ethically and professionally valid, Sandra and the corporation should have a shared vision in realizing the next generation biofuels before she grants any patented license.
References
Grohman, M. G., Lee, E. A., Gans, N., Tacca, M., & Brown, M. J. (2017). Engineering Ethics as an Expert Guided and Socially Situated Activity.
Baligar, P., & Joshi, G. (2017). Engineering Ethics: Decision Making Using Fundamental Canons. Journal of Engineering Education Transformations.