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Author Archives: Gerald Barnett
University Patent Claim Gridlock
Robert Cook-Deegan drew my attention to an essay by Josh Weitz at The Tree of Life blog. Weitz discusses his adventures with colliding claims for ownership of future inventions between two universities. It is well worth the read. Weitz makes a … Continue reading
Posted in Agreements, Policy, Present Assignment
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Unpacking the Code of Silence
Inside Higher Education has run a story on the AAUP Freedom to Innovate initiative, quoting a number of people who think it’s a good idea. And it is! But there is one person who thinks compulsory university ownership of faculty … Continue reading
Posted in Bayh-Dole, Freedom, Policy, Present Assignment, Sponsored Research
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AAUP Supports Freedom to Innovate
The AAUP has just published a draft report that lays out the case for the importance of academic freedom with regard to patents. Just because faculty scholarship may include inventive work does not trigger a mandate for absolute university control … Continue reading
Posted in Freedom, Innovation, Policy, Technology Transfer
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Worthless Patents
In my internet travels, I came across a useful article by Kimberly A. Moore titled “Worthless Patents.” At the time she wrote the article, she was a law professor at George Mason. Presently she is a judge with the Court … Continue reading
Not Again!
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, at one strange point a whale and a bowl of petunias come into existence and have only a few moments to come to grips with their situation. In about five minutes, a connection … Continue reading
Posted in Bayh-Dole, Commons, Innovation, Projects
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That’s What I Want
Princeton sues Princeton (h/t to Glenn): Bruce Afran, an attorney who lives in the town, is suing the school in the Tax Court of New Jersey on behalf of four other residents and the estate of a fifth, arguing that … Continue reading
Posted in Agreements, Policy
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Proposed section 285(b) points out a weakness in the death star
Chris Gallagher has been working tirelessly to make universities aware of proposed rule-making and legislation that might adversely affect their efforts to transfer technology for private development. He points to a discussion draft in the House Judiciary Committee that proposes … Continue reading
Posted in Agreements, Bayh-Dole, Policy
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Five Things to Save Bayh-Dole, Encourage Innovation, and Revive Tech Transfer Credibility
The Bayh-Dole Act has gone from being a golden goose to a weapon of mass destruction. The basic idea, to make more federally supported inventions available for management through university-affiliated agents, is fine. More to the point: as the federal … Continue reading
Posted in Bayh-Dole
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University Patent Policies, Past and Present, Part II
The first part of this essay showed some of the diversity of mid-century university patent policies. There were a number of approaches, from discouraging patenting to embracing it, from university direct control to the use of external agents. Almost all … Continue reading
Posted in Bayh-Dole, History, Policy, Present Assignment, Technology Transfer
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The Rhetoric of Technology Transfer and Student Debt
From Thomas Frank’s article in The Baffler (h/t Chris) on college tuition prices and administrative excess: The coming of academic capitalism has been anticipated and praised for years; today it is here. Colleges and universities clamor greedily these days for … Continue reading
Posted in Metrics, Sponsored Research, Technology Transfer
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