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Author Archives: Gerald Barnett
Waiters Packing Heat
A basic question I ask university tech transfer officers is this: in a licensing situation for university IP, who is it who first needs a contract? I get a lot of interesting answers to this. But here’s the thing. It’s … Continue reading
Posted in IP, Projects, Technology Transfer
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Pathway Dependence
Let’s look at a licensing situation set up two different ways. The purpose is to illustrate pathway dependence of an offer. Let’s say we have an invention with an associated patent right and a university laboratory willing to engage industry … Continue reading
Posted in IP, Projects, Technology Transfer
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You Know You Are In Deep When…
Attorneys won’t help you figure things out without 1) a dispute and 2) getting paid. There’s a point at which the law becomes whatever someone wanting to get their way is willing to argue for. Until then, it is really … Continue reading
Posted in IP
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Whose Research is It?
Really, it is *their* research, but not in the normal ownership way of thinking. I’m talking about university principal investigators. In the university way of doing things, faculty are not required to conduct research as a part of their employment … Continue reading
Posted in Projects, Social Science, Technology Transfer
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The Third Flavor
What’s not perhaps so obvious is how much variation and structure there is in the third flavor of technology transfer, from lab to application. We have four venues for this work: independent inventors, industry labs, government labs, and university labs. … Continue reading
Posted in IP, Technology Transfer
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Cooperative Competition
The Tour de France finished up at the end of July. The strategies of bicycle racing help to illustrate the practical nature of competition. In bicycle racing, there’s a mechanical advantage in being behind another racer. Trailing racers move into … Continue reading
Posted in Commons, IP, Metrics, Social Science, Technology Transfer
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The Patent License that Keeps on Taking
I was presenting at a conference of independent research organizations. Many of these are non-profits with mission purposes to cure diseases and support social change through research. The question came up from the patent attorneys in the audience: how do … Continue reading
Posted in Commons, Technology Transfer
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The PARC Dilemma
At Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center, a lot of great technology has been created. Postscript, ethernet, graphical user interfaces, the mouse, among others. The problem has been, that these technologies were not able to make it into the host company’s … Continue reading
Posted in Technology Transfer
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3 Flavors of Tech Transfer
Technology transfer historically comes in three flavors. (1) From developed countries to developing countries–which these days means from India and China to California and Michigan. This work involves adapting technology, providing infrastructure, and training people to use the technology. For … Continue reading
Posted in Technology Transfer
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Frame Agreements
Over in the “Pages” area on the upper right I am starting to add illustrative documents that show how one can extend research enterprise to include open innovation, commons, collaborative research, and the like. The first of these involves frame … Continue reading