Author Archives: Gerald Barnett

What is Bayh-Dole and why is it important to Technology Transfer?

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Gerald Barnett

Here is a short description of the Bayh-Dole Act at a US university tech transfer office web site.   There are many things wrong with the four paragraphs here.  Consider: In 1980, the Bayh-Dole Act (PL 96-517, Patent and Trademark Act … Continue reading →

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The (f)(2) agreement that your university must require you to sign

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Gerald Barnett

[Updated for the 2018 NIST regulatory revisions.] If you are working on a grant at a university, and the grant is from the US Government, and your university has accepted a standard patent rights clause in the form of 37 … Continue reading →

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(f)(2), The Soul of Bayh-Dole

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Gerald Barnett

[Updated May 2018 to deal with the NIST screwballedness.] At the heart of the Bayh-Dole Act is the disposition of ownership in inventions made with federal funding at universities. That disposition is intended to provide benefits to the public through … Continue reading →

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Freedom to Innovate in Washington State: Undoing the Embarrassing and Deceptive Muddle of UW and WSU Invention Policies

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Gerald Barnett

Here in the state of Washington, we are working to free faculty at public universities from state control of scholarship.  That’s the purpose of SB 5247, now in committee in the Washington state senate. Presently both the University of Washington … Continue reading →

Posted in Bayh-Dole, Policy | 1 Comment

The University as Bayh-Dole Privateer

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Gerald Barnett

Why would a nation-state seek to claim ownership of inventions made by its citizens?  That is, what uses would a nation-state put its patent system to, beyond those that one might expect of an individual inventor, entrepreneur, investor, company, university, … Continue reading →

Posted in Bayh-Dole, Commons, Innovation, Metrics, Policy, Shanzhai | 1 Comment

Fixing the Flaw in Bayh-Dole with Freedom to Innovate Legislation

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Gerald Barnett

The essence of the Bayh-Dole Act is that government, though it supports faculty-led university research, should defer to investigators and inventors who wish to develop the inventions they make. Bayh-Dole does this by pre-approving a broad set of arrangements that … Continue reading →

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15 arguments for the university innovation machine… and why they are wrong

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Gerald Barnett

University administrators are hot on the idea of compulsory institutional ownership of faculty “inventions.”  The idea of “invention” is itself the subject of expanding ideas of scope–not just patentable inventions, but pretty much anything that a university administrator thinks could … Continue reading →

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The Kind of Stuff I Do

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Gerald Barnett

While working on a book chapter on Bayh-Dole and university IP practice, I thought that it might be helpful to put together in one place a description of the sorts of projects I have worked on and continue enjoy being … Continue reading →

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Manitoba’s Bold New Licensing Practice

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Gerald Barnett

It’s only a news story, but it shows the continuing set of underlying assumptions about university involvement in innovation. These assumptions just won’t let go. There is a narrative frame around them that squeezes tight. Take a look at this … Continue reading →

Posted in Policy, Technology Transfer | 1 Comment

Finding the True Intent

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Gerald Barnett

I have been mulling over this sequence of statements from the court in the case of Shaw v. The Regents of the University of California: The true intent of a contracting party is irrelevant if it remains unexpressed. When a … Continue reading →

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