Publish or Patent?

Many university scientists claim “they don’t have time” to write-up patent applications … which seems true because most are incredibly busy teaching and/or conducting research and/or writing grants and papers.

But, with the notable exception of writing claims, the work they put into writing a manuscript for publication (i.e. the publish or perish doctrine), can be “cut & paste” into the backbone of a patent application.

Although the USPTO uses different headings and the sections are in a different order, overall it’s not a doubling of the work. They can be produced in parallel.

For those of you that work with academics, what other hurdles do you need to overcome to convince them to seek intellectual property protections?