Author Archives: Gerald Barnett

Breaking a social contract, with startups

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

For those universities that have made it a centerpiece of their practice to start companies as a way to get rich and create jobs, there’s a sobering critique of using the venture capital route to do it in the April … Continue reading →

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Bad Science and University Technology Transfer

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

Today we see yet another story on the emerging epidemic of bad science, this one from the former head of Amgen’s global cancer research.    Of 53 “landmark” publications in top journals, Amgen could not replicate 47 of the claimed … Continue reading →

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Getting it clear on the Stanford v Roche decision

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

While the history of the work to create the Bayh-Dole Act is always fascinating, the intentions and later reasoning about the law by advocates for legislation does not necessarily translate into the intention of Congress, nor to the actual language … Continue reading →

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Equity culture vs bonus culture

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

Paul Graham has a new essay on the challenges of concepts of property that don’t work.  For instance, ownership of smells, which might work on a moonbase selling air with distinctive scents to people, but strikes us as a foolish … Continue reading →

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"Employerism", ethics, and IP at the University of Washington

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

In 2003, the Public Employment Relations Commission ruled that despite a state law to the contrary, graduate students at the University of Washington should be allowed to organize and seek union representation.  I’m not so concerned with the unionization issue, … Continue reading →

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Systems that tolerate stagnation

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

Neal Stephenson, in a World Policy Institute essay: Today’s belief in ineluctable certainty is the true innovation-killer of our age. In this environment, the best an audacious manager can do is to develop small improvements to existing systems—climbing the hill, as it … Continue reading →

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The loss of university invention selectivity

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

A primary argument for university involvement in the management of federally supported inventions was that university agents were reporting something like 30% of their inventions under management were being placed with commercialization partners, while the federal agencies’ rate was something … Continue reading →

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Abandoning the Original Arguments

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

Vannevar Bush’s Science the Endless Frontier is a pivotal document.  It restates the arguments for the value of research and creates a mandate for the use of public funds in supporting universities both in their basic research and their instruction. … Continue reading →

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Francis Bacon, Vannevar Bush, and Technology Transfer

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

Peter Harrison and Benoît Godin trace the history and transformation of two of the critical concepts that underlie the present formula for university research: curiosity and innovation. Remarkably, both concepts have much of their early existence as negative things, to be … Continue reading →

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University IP programs with stewardship elements

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

Some university programs do have administrators that are looking at stewardship rather than ownership.  For instance, UC Berkeley and the University of Oregon.   The University of Waterloo works with a voluntary IP program.   If you know of others that … Continue reading →

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