Category Archives: Freedom

The Turning Point in Federal Patent Policy

Posted on November 28, 2020 by Gerald Barnett

1971. Here’s where things started to go bad. In 1963, President Kennedy issued a memorandum setting forth executive branch patent policy. When the federal government acquired inventions, the policy stipulated that patents would be made available “through dedication or licensing”–that … Continue reading →

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Effective University Technology Transfer

Posted on October 27, 2020 by Gerald Barnett

“Technology transfer” is not so obvious an idea as it may seem. There’s technology transfer from developed nations to “developing” nations. There’s technology transfer from one industry to another. There’s technology transfer from applications in the military to civilian uses. … Continue reading →

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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 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 any special … 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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