Author Archives: Gerald Barnett

7 Points on the *UW* Present Assignment Requirement

There has been some discussion going on about the recent UC UW requirement that everyone sign a new patent acknowledgement outside work request form, this one with a present assignment in it, with the claim that this change is needed … Continue reading

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Research Veering in the Public Interest

Did you see this story in the New York Times yesterday?  “Sloan-Kettering Chief Is Accused of Taking Research.” Craig Thompson, who worked at a research institute affiliated with University of Pennsylvania, starts a company, Agios, and now is being sued … Continue reading

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Practical Lessons for University Counsel

Here’s a typical slide deck (it opens in PowerPoint–sorry non-‘Softies) [now deleted–but here is a similar slide deck, posted at the University of Tennessee at about the same time, by Lakita Cavin, a staff attorney, and displaying similar problems] talking … Continue reading

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SB 6542 in Star Trek

SB 6542 will force universities to a voluntary IP program, and is being opposed by administrators who believe it is a virtue to place institutional self-interest ahead of individual liberty….  Translated into Star Trek (TOS), it’s something like this:

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On the Central Control of Research Innovation

Global University Venturing has published an essay that explores yet another aspect of the present assignment situation, exploring the effect of institutional claims on the dynamics of innovation.  In the essay I try to put in the context the arguments … Continue reading

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When public mission = money

I have been emphasizing organizational conflict of interest.  Most universities have no policy on such things, and therefore technology transfer has been allowed to make a transition from a broadly faculty-led activity with a diversity of practices reflecting the range … Continue reading

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Senate Bill 6542: Innovation Bill of Rights

Senator Maralyn Chase has introduced a bill in the Washington State senate that would prohibit public universities from making compulsory claims of ownership of intellectual property based on employment or use of facilities unless required by a sponsor of research. … Continue reading

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Ownership vs Stewardship, Fictionally Speaking

I have a perspective piece on ownership, stewardship, and Bayh-Dole after Stanford v Roche that has been published in Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News.  I thought I would put a link here if folks wanted to see it. Everyone talks … Continue reading

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The Star Trek Version of Ohio Revised Code 3345.14, Again

Sometimes it helps to transform a problem to see how it stacks up in a familiar notation.  This is done frequently in physics, for instance, where one might find a particle development advantageous over a wave-based notation for some calculations. … Continue reading

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Where’d you go, Ohio?

I have written previously about the State of Ohio’s effort to frustrate federal invention policy by asserting that public universities in the state own all inventions made in research done in state facilities or by university employees in the scope … Continue reading

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