The concept of owning knowledge is somewhat ethereal and until recently had little relevance to academic institutions. In principle any object that is capable of being controlled is capable of being owned. The most basic control concerns decisions about whether to communicate knowledge. The philosophical foundation which is the basis of the legal recognition of intellectual property in the United States is Article One, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, "Progress of Science and Useful Arts." Underlying the system is, as the U.S. Supreme Court has stated, "the conviction that encouragement of individual effort by personal gain is the best way to advance public welfare through the talents of authors and inventors." At issue is what kind of knowledge should have exclusive ownership rights, and under what conditions. Patent laws do not protect basic scientific discoveries but only the method for making practical use of them. While there may be some reasons for not recognizing proprietary rights in theoretical knowledge, one may suspect that the main arguments against such recognition relate to resulting complex administrative problems. The proprietary view of knowledge could have a very damaging effect both on the way scientists share information and on how topics are selected for research. The time has come when universities have to establish policies regulating the exploitation for personal gain of knowledge obtained while doing scientific research as a member of a university community. (PPB)