Author Archives: Gerald Barnett

Some Questions from a Future FAQ on Bayh-Dole

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Gerald Barnett

Q. Can a university violate the Bayh-Dole Act? A. No. Bayh-Dole applies to federal agencies. The law requires federal agencies to adopt uniform practices regarding patent rights to inventions in funding agreements. Bayh-Dole (now) authorizes the Department of Commerce to … Continue reading →

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When the pseudo-Bayh-Dole prophecy fails

Posted on January 1, 2016 by Gerald Barnett

In 1956, Leon Festinger and others published an account of a group in Chicago that believed that the world was about to be destroyed by a flood, but that those who took the appropriate actions would be rescued by a spaceship … Continue reading →

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Voyage of the beagles

Posted on December 28, 2015 by Gerald Barnett

It’s not that I wanted to take a hiatus from posting ideas here at the Research Enterprise blog, but other writing tasks and various gusts of the life winds took me away from this forum. But I intend to be … Continue reading →

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Cornell’s incompetent "procedural revision" of its patent policy

Posted on October 27, 2015 by Gerald Barnett

In 2013, Robert A. Burhman, Vice President for Technology Transfer at Cornell University, sent a letter out to faculty making a claim about Stanford v. Roche: As you may also know, and as discussed in more detail at the end of this … Continue reading →

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Can’t you see what Wisconsin has been doin’ to free?

Posted on October 16, 2015 by Gerald Barnett

In the summer of 1981, the Bayh-Dole Act went into effect, launching a tsunami that would sweep away the existing infrastructure for faculty-led use of patents to develop research discoveries. In its place, thirty-five years later, sits a manager-led system … Continue reading →

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UW's President Continues UW's Rank Deception

Posted on October 6, 2015 by Gerald Barnett

On September 30, University of Washington interim president Ana Mari Cauce sent out an email to alumni, including me, on the topic of “kicking off a new year.” The aim of the email was a pitch for donations, of course. … Continue reading →

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How Bayh-Dole dammed, and then damned, the commons

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Gerald Barnett

This is the third article in a series. The first is here. The second, here. The motivating driver of the Bayh-Dole Act, if we can be blunt, was to put the affiliated research foundations in a position to keep with impunity any … Continue reading →

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Bayh-Dole was written for the research foundations. Pity for us all that it didn’t work out.

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Gerald Barnett

After I wrote the previous article, it struck me that the origins of Bayh-Dole really are with the affiliated research foundations trying to license patents to industry, not with the universities, and not even with Research Corporation (which remained neutral … Continue reading →

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How Bayh-Dole failed to protect faculty inventors (from university administrators)

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Gerald Barnett

[Now with some revisions in the second paragraph that on reflection were worth making.] There are a number of things wrong with the Bayh-Dole Act, such as the lack of accountability for the disposition of privately held patents on inventions … Continue reading →

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The Road to Redemption

Posted on September 21, 2015 by Gerald Barnett

Here’s a story in today’s Seattle Times about AnswerDash, a company formed by students and faculty at the University of Washington’s Information School (my emphasis): The company, founded in 2012, has raised more than $5 million, including a $2.9 million … Continue reading →

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