That’s the rub. I agree with you morally, and I think most people would agree that inventors of fundamental tech should be as well-compensated as founders who “merely” bring it to market. But were Einstein or Feynman wealthy, or Newton before them? Perhaps it’s the scientific fate to be at odds with capitalism.
On the other hand, no amount of money can immortalize you the way this type of discovery would.
Nevertheless, he also got sucked into the infamous South Sea mania of 1720, which was basically the monkey JPG of its day, and consequently he lost a great deal of his wealth.
“Newton's financial misadventures in the South Sea Bubble”: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsnr.2018.001...
Given that, why not have a government spend a bunch of money to buy the rights, then release it to the public domain.
If I had to guess, the scientists would be willing to sell it into the public domain for less money then they would to a private company; however they probably would not be willing to donate it to the public domain when there is massive private money on the table.
Given all if this, the fact that there will likely not even be an offer for this by the government is a policy choice that we will be paying for for the next 20 years.
I find your faith in governments, or naivete, quite disturbing. There is no such government that would do that. They'd be stupid doing it, too.
They'd just keep it and profit from it themselves.
Who owns the patent? It wouldn't be out of the ordinary to assume the company they are working for owns it. Maybe they'll do OK, but I don't think it is a forgone conclusion that the discoverers/inventors will be suddenly wealthy.
200 million is private jet money.
No. Whatever problems LK-99 might solve will be rapidly replaced by new, even more pressing, "problems."
I’d like to see important discoveries free from “IP” and patent encumbrances and instead of inventors (hopefully) getting paid based on market viability, getting paid based on the positive different it makes to the health of the world.
Just imagine the renaissance on fresh food, for example.
It's pretty great for humanity if it turns out to be real and relatively simple to produce.