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Author Archives: Gerald Barnett
Patent Policies of Confidence, and Patent Policies of Fear
Vannevar Bush, writing in the introduction to Modern Arms and Free Men (1949): This is not a history of what science did in the war; that has already been written. It is an attempt to explore its meaning in the … Continue reading
Posted in Freedom, History, Innovation, Policy
1 Comment
University startups, exits, and candor
The most recent Pitchbook has some interesting information on private equity exits. If university administrators have been sold on the idea that there’s fast cash in startup company equity, there are also data to dampen administrative spirits. The Pitchbook identifies … Continue reading
Posted in Bozonet, Metrics, Policy
Tagged exit, loyal opposition, Pitchbook, startup, University of Washington
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The long, slow 180 degree turn
I have spent the past few weeks working through 130 patent policies at US universities, circa 1962. I have compiled a set of notes that runs to 100 pages, and another set of notes that are notes on the notes–2nd … Continue reading
Posted in History, Policy, Technology Transfer
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400 reasons to consider alternatives to the now standard model
The National Science Foundation has kept track of university expenditures on research in a detailed way since 1972. The figures for 2011 include expenditures of $65b across all fields, from all sources of funding, with 912 universities reporting. Nearly $35b … Continue reading
Posted in Policy, Technology Transfer
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What the university doing research was built for
[update 9/2/2016. I’ve rebuilt the middle section of this article to do a better job with the numbers. I built a little model in Excel and have included snapshots from it in the text. Once the model is in better … Continue reading
Posted in Metrics, Policy, Technology Transfer
1 Comment
University patent policies then and now
Some patent policies in effect in 1962, with the date of most recent revision. From the preamble to the New Mexico State University research and patent policy, 1960: Discoveries and inventions which appear as a natural product of original work … Continue reading
The University Inventor’s Prayer
Psalm 23 includes the lines: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Through some strange time warp, … Continue reading
Posted in Policy, Technology Transfer
Tagged valley of death
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Administrative patent policy swarming
I have been intrigued by a story David Byrne tells in How Music Works. Byrne needed three dancers as part of an ensemble, so they held an audition that had fifty dancers. The choreographer had the dancers do an exercise … Continue reading
The non-patenting of the first digital computer
In Turing’s Cathedral, George Dyson provides an account of the creation of the first digital computer at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. John von Neumann, leading the effort, in 1946 came up with a patent policy for the … Continue reading
Posted in Commons, History, IP, Policy, Technology Transfer
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1962 University of Arizona patent policy allowed inventors to choose their agent
In Neal Stephenson’s Anathem, in an earth-history parallel but someways upside downed from our own, there is an order of “avouts” or knowledge-monks called Lorites. A Lorite is “A member of a Order founded by Saunt Lora, who believed that … Continue reading
Posted in Bayh-Dole, Policy, Technology Transfer
Tagged Arizona, Lorites, patent, policy, Stanford v Roche
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