Author Archives: Gerald Barnett

University of Utah’s Policy on State Control of Research Results

University patent policies these days typically contain a definition of “invention.”  Often they try to conflate copyright and patent matters and introduce a new definition, such as “discovery” or “intellectual property” in an attempt at administrative convenience.  These new definitions … Continue reading

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A Brief History of University Patent Policies

[Updated May 2018] American University Patent Policies:  A Brief History 1900-1924 Universities have no formal policy on patents, and follow defaults provided by law, addressing issues as they arise. 1912 University of California professor Frederick Cottrell forms non-profit Research Corporation … Continue reading

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10 Issues That May Limit Infringement Claims on Subject Inventions

I have been working on the problem of infringement litigation involving subject inventions under Bayh-Dole. Here is a working summary of Bayh-Dole-related issues that companies being hit by universities with subject invention infringement cases might consider. I am not aware … Continue reading

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Letters of Marque

Here is an odd thing. Under the US Constitution, Congress is granted in Article I, Section 8, among other Powers, the power To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors … Continue reading

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The Compliance Apparatus is Essential to Bayh-Dole

The Bayh-Dole Act is often presented as a boon to universities. Yet a reading of the law as it makes its way into federal funding agreements suggests otherwise. Universities are a problem, and a lot of apparatus of Bayh-Dole is … Continue reading

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An Updated Guide to the Bayh-Dole Act

Ah, COGR has not contacted me yet for help in revising their long-neglected Guide to the Bayh-Dole Act. While I waited for their call, I put together this text for a brochure that might serve until they have finished revising, … Continue reading

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Problems with COGR’s 1999 "Guide" to Bayh-Dole

In 1999, the Council on Governmental Relations, a non-profit organization that fronts for over 100 research universities on lobbying and advocacy issues, produced an influential summary of the Bayh-Dole Act, “The Bayh-Dole Act:  A Guide to the Law and Implementing … Continue reading

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Compulsion, Fifth Amendment Taking, and SPRC (f)(2)

Given the apparent intention of certain advocates for Bayh-Dole that the purpose of the law should be that universities come to own faculty inventions made with federal support, thereby effectively cutting off Research Corporation and other independent invention management agents … Continue reading

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Three Responses to the SPRC post-Stanford v Roche

In the Bayh-Dole Act,  a “subject invention” is defined as any invention of the contractor conceived or first actually reduced to practice in the performance of work under a funding agreement… (35 USC 201(e)). A “contractor” is defined as any … Continue reading

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Digging in New Places, Following Old Patterns

An article in a recent Economist reports that elite craft industries in Italy–fashion and leather goods–are unable to find new workers even though there are jobs available that pay well and youth unemployment is 35%.  It seems that youth are … Continue reading

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