Category Archives: Freedom

Why dealing in patent monopolies is bad for university research

Posted on May 19, 2020 by Gerald Barnett

[updated to add some comments among the elements of the list] Bayh-Dole recovers and expands the opportunity for universities to deal in patent monopolies on inventions made in federally supported work. Bayh-Dole does not require such behavior, does not give … Continue reading →

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Vannever Bush on the control of scientists

Posted on January 25, 2019 by Gerald Barnett

Here’s Vannever Bush on the institutional desire to control scientists: There is nothing more deadly than control of the activities of scientists and engineers by men who do not really understand, but think they do or must at least give … Continue reading →

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WARF, Vitamin D, and the Public Interest, 1

Posted on October 3, 2018 by Gerald Barnett

In the 1940s, WARF was basking in the income from licensing its flagship patents–on a way to irradiate food products to produce in them vitamin D. (For an interesting account with lots of details, see Rima D. Apple, a University … Continue reading →

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Shaping Science

Posted on September 28, 2018 by Gerald Barnett

A short version of a Research Enterprise article on Daniel Sarewitz’s “Saving Science” is posted as correspondence at The New Atlantis, where Sarewitz also responds to various comments on his paper. In part, Sarewitz gathers some of those comments into … Continue reading →

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The monopoly meme, 5

Posted on September 26, 2018 by Gerald Barnett

Now let’s turn to the Bayh-Dole Act and see how it works with the monopoly meme. Short form, if you don’t want to bother, is that Bayh-Dole doesn’t follow the monopoly meme in its gestures, but because these gestures never … Continue reading →

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The monopoly meme, 4

Posted on September 25, 2018 by Gerald Barnett

We are nearing the end of examining Howard Bremer’s Senate subcommittee testimony from 1979 on a bill that was remarkably like Bayh-Dole. Bremer’s testimony is useful in helping us get at the rhetorical effect of the monopoly meme–that without a … Continue reading →

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The monopoly meme, 3

Posted on September 24, 2018 by Gerald Barnett

We are working through Howard Bremer’s testimony before a Senate subcommittee with regard to a bill remarkably like what would become Bayh-Dole. The point is to explore how the monopoly meme works in practice. Bremer gives nine principles that ought … Continue reading →

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The monopoly meme, 2

Posted on September 21, 2018 by Gerald Barnett

To get at the rhetorical workings of the monopoly meme, we are working our way through Howard Bremer’s testimony before a Senate subcommittee discussing S. 1215, an alternative bill to Bayh-Dole that was being considered after S. 414 had failed … Continue reading →

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Who Owns Digital Learning Resources?–6

Posted on September 10, 2018 by Gerald Barnett

Let’s come back around to Hal Plotkin’s question–who owns digital learning resources? Plotkin wants the answer to be: certainly not the university bureaucrats aiming to “commercialize” everything and therefore putting everything behind a paywall. That makes sense. Bureaucrats don’t have … Continue reading →

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Who Owns Digital Learning Resources?–5

Posted on September 7, 2018 by Gerald Barnett

There’s a basic problem with federal grant support for research. I don’t know if the Department of Education has avoided this problem, but I will put it out there. If a federal agency supports both research and maintenance of contract deliverables, … Continue reading →

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