UC Irvine Deal With Hitachi

The Times has published an editorial (March 13) and a separate column raising questions about the agreement between Hitachi Chemical and UC Irvine under which Hitachi Chemical built a $16.5-million research laboratory at UCI in which biochemical research is conducted by researchers from both institutions.

Your editorial implies, among other things, that the Hitachi Chemical/UCI relationship may tempt Hitachi Chemical to be a party to an improper knowledge “leak.”

The Hitachi Chemical/UCI relationship is governed by terms dictated by UCI and wholeheartedly agreed to and supported by Hitachi Chemical.

Some of the agreement’s terms are:

-- Hitachi Chemical is never, under any circumstances, guaranteed the licensing right to any research conducted jointly by UCI and Hitachi researchers. At best, Hitachi can be the first to negotiate with UCI for those rights.

-- Hitachi will have the same opportunity as any other company--no more and no less--to bid for licensing rights to research conducted solely by UCI researchers.

-- The U.S. government requires that the licenses of any technology developed with federal grants must substantially manufacture the resulting product in the U.S. The government may revoke such license at any time. Hitachi wholeheartedly supports this policy.

-- The terms provide UCI and California’s taxpayers with a state-of-the art research facility that, at the end of the lease, becomes the property of UCI.

The column by Michael Schrage (March 12) attacked Hitachi Chemical and UCI, calling our agreement “unwise.” Schrage seems to wrongly believe that there is something inherently suspicious about collaboration between a public institution of higher learning and private enterprise, especially if that company is Japanese.

HIROSHI SUMIYAMA

President and CEO

Hitachi Chemical Research Center, Irvine