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Monthly Archives: October 2013
"Effectuating" a change in university policy statements about Bayh-Dole
Here’s a passage from Rutgers’ patent policy: D. Reservation of Rights in Sponsored Research. Ownership of patents arising from work sponsored by Federal agencies shall be subject to the provisions of Public Law 96-517, the Bayh-Dole Act as amended, other … Continue reading
Posted in Bayh-Dole, Policy, Stanford v Roche
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Feynman on his patents
Richard Feynman was awarded patents. Here is a recording of an interview that describes how it all came about. You can also read about the episode in Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman? Could be academic inventions are a dime a … Continue reading
Posted in Innovation, IP, Policy
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Predators in the Patent System
Stuff is happening in Washington DC, despite the loggerheads on budget and Obamacare. Chris Gallagher sends notice that Sen Hatch has introduced a new bill, SB 1612, “to combat patent trolls” as the press release describes it: WASHINGTON – U.S. … Continue reading
Posted in Policy, Technology Transfer
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Moose Turd Pie, and No Good
The Economist ran a cover story last week on “how science goes wrong”: An argument of the piece is that journals like splashy claims but don’t have room for studies that announce validation of prior reports. The article goes … Continue reading
Posted in Bad Science, Freedom, Innovation, Policy, Technology Transfer
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Where have you gone, Curt Flood?
It should be clear by now: universities have no basis to compel assignment of faculty intellectual property. The basis for faculty assignment of IP is voluntary agreement–either at employment because a faculty member is expressly hired to invent something, or … Continue reading
Posted in Bad Science, History, Policy, Present Assignment
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Forms of ownership failure in compulsory university IP policies
Let’s look at intellectual property ownership in the context of faculty work. For scholarship, we can identify six forms of ownership: ownership of inventions (patent), original works of authorship (copyright), marks used in commerce (trademark), information (trade secret), tangible stuff … Continue reading
Posted in IP, Policy
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Invention is injury
I have been mulling over “scope of employment” and “course of employment” and “official duties” and related constructions that show up repeatedly in university patent policies. A strange thing about these matters is that there are two very different bodies … Continue reading
Posted in History, Policy
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Getting Closer to the Heart
What is the purpose of university intellectual property policy? This question is not idle. For decades, Archie Palmer worked to get universities to adopt formal patent and research policies, publishing accounts of various university policy statements, together with commentary on … Continue reading
Posted in Bad Science, Policy
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The loneliness of the tail gunner
A while back I wrote about Vannever Bush’s distinction between institutions based on confidence and ones based on fear and related this distinction to institutional patent policies. In a rather different context, Richard Lindzen of MIT takes up other problems … Continue reading
Posted in Policy, Sponsored Research, Technology Transfer
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University Patent Claim Gridlock
Robert Cook-Deegan drew my attention to an essay by Josh Weitz at The Tree of Life blog. Weitz discusses his adventures with colliding claims for ownership of future inventions between two universities. It is well worth the read. Weitz makes a … Continue reading
Posted in Agreements, Policy, Present Assignment
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