Companies Battle Over Technology That's Free on the Web

Abstract

The microarray revolution reached a flash point at Stanford University on 17 April 1998. That's when Joseph DeRisi, then a grad student in Patrick Brown's lab, posted a document called the “MGuide” on the Web. It isn't a radical tract; it's just a “lighthearted” manual, DeRisi says, telling the reader how to build a microarray robot and listing all the necessary parts, suppliers, and prices (cmgm.stanford.edu/pbrown/mguide/index.html). The estimated cost: $23,500.