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Category Archives: History
Bayh-Dole Up Your Counsel, 1
A lawyer staffing service and web site, UpCounsel, has a friendly page that offers “everything you need to know” about the Bayh-Dole Act. They promise you can learn what you need with an “11 min read.” I think it’s something … Continue reading
Political bluffing as Bayh-Dole policy advice, 2
This, then, is the “policy” of Bayh-Dole that Allen champions–that nonprofits can and should deal in patent monopolies. Some historical bluffing from Allen’s policy advice (his emphasis): At that time the federal government funded about half of the R&D in … Continue reading
Posted in Bayh-Dole, Bozonet, History
Tagged Bayh-Dole, bluff, incentives, licensing rate
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Political bluffing as Bayh-Dole policy advice, 1
In a once-notorious essay (“Is Business Bluffing Ethical“) Albert Carr, a former presidential advisor, argues that business “bluffing” is ethical because business is based on games, and in games bluffing is perfectly acceptable. Same for politics. If everyone expects everyone … Continue reading
The IPA and Wisconsin’s 1969 Patent Policy, Table of Links
In May 2017 I wrote a series of articles that traced the development of the University of Wisconsin’s patent policy, how the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation shaped federal policy to disenfranchise faculty inventors in favor of its own money-making ventures … Continue reading
Whistling all the way to the bank, revisited 3
Having established the contracting problem for government-sponsored “basic research,” let’s get into how the patent administration folks got into changing things around from government ownership to institutional ownership, when the institutions didn’t have policies and practices that swept up inventions … Continue reading
Posted in Bayh-Dole, History, Sponsored Research, Technology Transfer
Tagged Bayh-Dole, inventions, IPA, patents
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Available to one, developed by none, 2
We are working through the political argument that without a patent monopoly, federally supported research will never get used or developed into commercial products or ever benefit the public. It’s flowery language meant to lead those who hear or read … Continue reading
Available to one, developed by none, 1
A repeated argument regarding inventions made with federal support was that the public would benefit from these inventions only if companies invested substantial amounts of private capital in developing the inventions as commercial products. Without commercial development at private expense, … Continue reading
Posted in History, IP, Policy, Projects, Technology Transfer
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Helge Holst’s 1963 Argument for Institutional Control of Government Inventions
In 1963, Helge Holst, an attorney for Arthur D. Little and member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s National Defense Committee published a report titled “Government Patent Policy: Its Impact on Contractor Cooperation with the Government and Widespread Use of … Continue reading
Posted in History
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The Biddle Report’s Perfectly Fine Assumptions
From time to time, I revisit territory. I wrote about this issue almost two years ago, now. I provide here a different angle that gets at the same point. Here’s Sean O’Connor proposing that a flawed assumption in the U.S. … Continue reading
Posted in Bayh-Dole, History, Policy, Stanford v Roche
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The National Patent Planning Commission argument for government-created private patent monopolies, 3
The National Patent Planning Commission quotes administration officials repeating this same argument. Here’s the Under Secretary of Agriculture (1941): The commercial exploitation of new inventions requires, in many cases, the expenditure of large sums of money. In such a case, … Continue reading
Posted in History, Innovation, Policy
Tagged invention, National Patent Planning Commission, patent, pharma, Vannevar Bush
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