Once I left U. Akron it was as if a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Although my ordeal does not compare in magnitude to his, I kept thinking of the immortal Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words, “Free at last, free at last. Thank God almighty we are free at last!” But in reality I wasn’t fully insulated from the influence of individuals at U. Akron. Indeed, I had struck out on my own and started a private company (Stewart’s Technologies, LLC) where I was engaged in research for hire services as well as producing small quantities of perfluoroarylated Lewis acids (PFLAs) for sale.* Despite numerous difficulties I can say without hesitation that even the worst of times on my own were better than the best of times at U. Akron.
Around this time U. Akron sent documentation concerning the patents on which I was listed as a coinventor whereby I’d essentially assign over my interest in the patents to them (see below). I only signed such documents with the caveat that I contested “Kennedy’s” inclusion as a coinventor on US 7,202,317 (see enclosure #3 in my letters to Ken Preston and George Moxon, both posted below). Eventually I had raised this concern (again) directly with the director of technology transfer at U. Akron (Mr. Preston) as well as with the attorney (Mr. Moxon) of the law firm (Rotezel and Andress) handling the patent filings (see below). Despite indicating that I was the sole inventor to U.S. 7,202,317 neither of them followed up with me on the matter, further perpetrating the fraud of “Dr. Kennedy”. At that time Dr. Collins was still in the employment of U. Akron and had not yet admitted to the fact that indeed I not only conceived the invention but that I was responsible for its full development (please see the last document posted in blog # 16 of this blog series for his admittance of these facts). I can only assume that Collins was in no position to challenge “Kennedy” or anyone else at U. Akron for that matter. In fact, on reviewing the invention disclosure form that U. Akron forced me to sign (see below) in April 4, 2003 (this was for the first patent covering the polymerization system devised by Dr. Collins and Dr. Piers) it should be noticed that “Dr. Kennedy” was already listed as a coinventor despite the fact that this document actually predates my actual invention contained in US 7,202,317! Further casting serious suspicion on his claim to inventorship is the fact that his claim to inventorship is solely verbal. Regardless, as shown in the previous blog posting, every single document regarding this invention clearly shows it is mine as does the fact that I’m the only person to invent two additional polymerization systems that effect cationic polymerization of IB in aqueous media.
Declaration of power to U.Akron for Inventions
Letter to Roetzel and Andress Moxon
In an attempt to further disclose another discovery that I had made previously at U. Akron I began writing a journal article on the decomposition of carbocations paired with PFLAs by sterically hindered pyridines (SHPs). During my stint at U. Akron I discovered that 2,6-di-t-butyl-4-methylpyridine readily consumed cumyl carbocation when the latter was paired with a PFLA derived anion and this finding was unique in that the consensus was such SHPs were too bulky to react with any electrophile other than H+ . The only problem is that my discovery laid buried in my dissertation and not in a journal. Most of this article is still on my website to this day; however, it was properly rejected by Dr. Collins due to lack of more thorough experimental investigations** (which I wasn’t about to return to U. Akron to conduct). Regardless, submission of this draft spurred additional work in the Collins’ lab and I donated some of the PFLAs used in this research.*** This proved to be the final turning point for me in dealings with U. Akron as “Dr. Kennedy” was again somehow able to worm his way into a journal article that focused on my discovery.**** Unfortunately, I was in no position to prevent this from happening as I was not the lead author since the follow-up research had been conducted by a postdoc of Collins. When this occurred I severed my ties with Collins and soon afterwards, Collins admitted that I was the sole inventor to US 7,202,317 (see last document on the previous blog posting) just prior to departing from U. Akron.
Following this formal severing of ties with Collins I’ve continued to be active in the field of cationic polymerization, now having invented two additional methods for aqueous polymerization of isobutene in addition to numerous other novel discoveries. Still, during my studies of the patent and scientific literature I’ve stumbled across a number of interesting findings regarding “Dr. Kennedy’s” past inventorship experiences which further serve to collaborate previous blog postings concerning this individual. These will be detailed in a future blog posting in this series…
* Sadly enough the only individuals to harass me in regards to PFLA manufacture were people from U. Akron and Northwestern University. In the former instance Mr. Kenneth Preston of U. Akron attempted to coerce me into licensing a patent where I was listed as a coinventor. The other instance involved an attorney for Northwestern University whom indicated was requested by no other than Tobin Marks to inform me that I had to stop selling PFLA compounds. In both instances I politely declined their requests since the technology I was using was public domain. The reader can only cast judgment as to the lack of integrity of these individuals and their respective institutions.
** In this article I attempted to forward a modification of the so called “complex counteranion theory” that supposedly originated from “Dr. J.P. Kennedy”. As I will be detailing in a subsequent blog posting, a large number of inventions ascribed to this individual are in actuality “prior art” works of others (he even admits this in several publications) and it would appear that the same can be said for a number of concepts that this individual is credited for having developed. Regardless, I have since devised my own theory that satisfactorily explains the MW-T profile behavior for cationic polymerizations.
*** As far as I can tell my donation of materials was never properly referenced in any of the three subsequent papers that were published by the Collins’ group following my departure from U. Akron.
**** This is the only journal article based on a discovery of mine where “Dr. Kennedy” was able to place his name.