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The University of Utah has begun borrowing from its endowment fund to pay attorneys to pursue cold-fusion patents.
``The state money ran out this month, and what we are going to do is fund those expenses here at the university by borrowing against the university endowment with the expectation of recovering that money from some source in the future,'' said John Morris, associate vice president for academic affairs.
The U. will borrow some of the endowment's principal with the provision it be paid back with interest. A similar arrangement is being used to cover legal costs in an antitrust investigation involving University Hospital.
Mr. Morris said the university is still looking at the possibility of luring venture capital. Previous attempts at gaining capital never got off the ground.
The university may even sell some of the equipment bought for the defunct National Cold Fusion Institute to pay back the loan, he said.
Going back to the Legislature for the money is also possible, but Mr. Morris said that would happen only if other sources have been exhausted.
Most of the nine patent applications come from Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann, the two U. chemists whose March 1989 cold-fusion announcement set off a furor and backlash. Others are held by groups headed by former U. College of Mines Dean Milton E. Wadsworth and by Fritz Will, former director of the fusion institute.
``The applications are still under review by the patent office,'' said Mike Sutton, the U.'s patent attorney from the Houston office of Fish and Richardson. ``We have received actions on some of the cases, but only a very limited number.''
Pursuing patents has already cost the state $750,000, and estimates for further legal work have been in the area of $200,000 yearly.
``We are trying to be cost conscious,'' Mr. Sutton said.
Bruce Landesman, a philosophy professor and chairman of the faculty senate, said he had no problem with borrowing from the endowment. ``They don't have budgeted funds, and they have to spend the money, so it's only way to do it.''
Physics Professor Michael Salamon was not so convinced: ``It's a waste of money, but I'm just a physicist.''
Former U. President Chase N. Peterson was sharply criticized by his faculty in 1990 when he tried to quietly appropriate $500,000 from a U. research fund to cold fusion.