Not everyone, however, is happy to see MCNC pocket so much money. That's because the 20-year-old organization, formerly the Microelectronics Center of North Carolina, was created by the state legislature and received $250 million in state money until funding was halted in 1995.
"I think there's a strong moral obligation to repay the state for its investment in MCNC," says Republican state Representative Art Pope of Raleigh. "MCNC would not have existed but for state funding."
MCNC has offered to hand over $30 million, but appears to be under no legal obligation to share its profit with the state. Still, chances are that similar situations will arise as economic development initiatives increasingly involve creating intellectual property with commercial potential, rather than simply building roads or dredging harbors.
Pope says the legislature should consider specifying that the state retain some rights to intellectual property when it gives money to nonprofits in the future. Research universities, he notes, generally have policies in place anticipating commercialization of on-campus work by faculty members.
But an analogy between MCNC and educational institutions may only go so far. Even if faculty members at the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University, the two major state schools, are required at times to give their sponsors a cut of businesses they start, the state isn't claiming a share of the university's stake.
