Author Archives: Gerald Barnett

Dream on

I had a dream last night that I was in a city–don’t know where–in which one had to get a license to purchase food. And not only that, but one also had to get a license at the same time … Continue reading

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A response to a Quora question on “key principles” to consider in creating an IP policy

I got a Quora request for an answer. Just posted this. Let’s start with some basics regarding policy. Since the early 15th century, policy has been a creature of government, and of organizations with the idea of behaving as if … Continue reading

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On becoming Dublin again

Adrian Johns, in Piracy: The Intellectual Property Wars From Gutenberg to Gates, describes the difference in approach to literary property between the rival cities London and Dublin. For London publishers, literary property was held to be perpetual. For Dublin publishers, … Continue reading

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Research administrators protest indirect cost changes

The NIH has proposed to set the indirect cost rate for its grants at 15%. There’s the usual outrage. I don’t feel that outrage, however. I don’t even feel a desire to preserve the present approach to federally supported research. … Continue reading

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NIH’s change to indirect costs as an opening for research enterprise change

A few days ago, Chris Newfield published an article on his Remaking blog on the proposed NIH cuts to university indirect costs. Now, Chris is the most knowledgeable person on university financing who is willing to speak openly about how … Continue reading

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End the disaster of university patenting for exclusive licensing

While there is a place for exclusive patent licensing (but why not just assign?), the university screws over its public mission by involving itself in exclusive deals. Just because those deals aren’t obvious to the public unless they make big … Continue reading

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Stop being Moloch

Here is a short form of the argument that nothing is a better way than the approach to technology transfer, IP, licensing that universities have at present. The present approach universities take to IP management/technology transfer does not work, has … Continue reading

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Dubilier, university IP policy and, er, inner life

Dubilier set in motion a cascade of things that leads us to, well, to where we are. In Dubilier, the Supreme Court established that inventors own their inventions unless they agree otherwise, even if they are employees, and even if … Continue reading

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Contemptuous Invention Claims

Let’s start with the Dubilier decision. In 1933, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that two federal employees, working within the area of expertise for which they were employed, using the employer’s time and resources, still owned the inventions they made … Continue reading

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Better than drinking oneself silly

In my last article, I argued that “the better way is no way.” Sounds sort of zen-like, no? That is, universities would do a better job of technology transfer if they started by getting out of the claim-everything-own-everything-patent-everything-try-to-license-exclusively-or-not-at-all-for-one-big-hit-in-2000-inventions business. Or, … Continue reading

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