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Author Archives: Gerald Barnett
University patent policies as covert non-compete covenants
I have been looking at laws regarding non-compete covenants. A non-compete agreement aims to prevent a worker from accepting other work that would compete with his or her employer or business partner. In employment situations, this might include non-solicitation of … Continue reading
Posted in Agreements, Freedom, IP, Policy
1 Comment
Falling revenues for the model that never was, but is
An article by Jens Krogstad in USA Today, reposted at Innovation Daily, has the headline “Universities struggle with falling invention royalties”. Well, no kidding. The big biotech window of investment was 1980-1995. Aging patents in university portfolios are expiring everywhere, … Continue reading
Posted in Freedom, History, Policy, Technology Transfer
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Three Innovation Propositions of the Moloch-State
As American public universities ramp up their claims to own faculty inventions, software, works of authorship, and even know-how, all in the name of profit-seeking from “commercialization”–by which they mean something along the lines of “making money when speculative monopolists … Continue reading
A bureaucrat’s thumb in every hopeful innovation pie
Advocates of the “faux” Bayh-Dole make the claim that the inspired part of the Act is that it gives ownership of faculty inventive work supported by federal funds to university bureaucrats for their fun and profit. I know, I’ve skipped … Continue reading
Posted in Agreements, Bayh-Dole, Policy, Present Assignment, Stanford v Roche
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Another Wild Assertion of Best Practice
Here is a passage from the “IP Handbook of Best Practices,” from an article about the development of University of California “technology transfer”, co-authored by a former director of the UC tech transfer office (emphasis added): In 1943, the first … Continue reading
Thanks
As we in the US celebrate another Thanksgiving holiday, it is also time to thank all the tech transfer folks for their hard work in the service of innovation for a better society. We may not always agree on methods … Continue reading
Posted in Freedom, Uncategorized
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Right More Often Than Wrong
John Gruber writes Daring Fireball, one of the best blogs on technology management, innovation, and business, generally from an Apple baseline. I like how he selects from the news of the day, pulls a quote, and provides a quick … Continue reading
Posted in Social Science, Technology Transfer
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Considering "Pay the employee as if it had exploited the patent"
I have been looking at the impact of the “export” of the faux Bayh-Dole Act from the US to other countries. By “faux” I mean the interpretation of Bayh-Dole that claims that the Act vested, mandated, and/or assured university ownership … Continue reading
Posted in Technology Transfer
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The Box of Technology Transfer
In The Marketplace of Ideas: Reform and Resistance in the American University, Louis Menand works his way through the angst that is the lot of the English professor mired in a world of humanities departments who have lost their way … Continue reading
Posted in Freedom, Innovation, Literature, Technology Transfer
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Luck. Goodwill. Diligence.
I have a hypothesis, not made idly: University innovation comes about primarily as a combination of luck, goodwill, and diligence, typically in that order of importance. Most of the major university licensing transactions appear to have followed this pathway. Something … Continue reading
Posted in Freedom, Innovation, Policy
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