Author Archives: Gerald Barnett

The better way is no way: background rights, royalty stacking, and double licensing arising from university IP claims

Let’s start blunt. Then extended discussion. Snark as needed. Current university IP policies create a background rights problem that drives away collaborators, makes university-based inventions irrelevant, and makes university dealings with IP default to unreliable. One of the dark problems … Continue reading

Posted in Bayh-Dole, Bozonet, Patents | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on The better way is no way: background rights, royalty stacking, and double licensing arising from university IP claims

More on Feynman’s Patents

Back in 2013, I wrote a stubby post to create a link to audio of an interview with physicist Richard P. Feynman, in which he describes how he came to be named as inventor on U.S. patents. Since that post … Continue reading

Posted in Fun, History | Tagged , , | Comments Off on More on Feynman’s Patents

Espresso Granola

Okay. I have been making granola for dunno over five years. Here’s my once uber-non-public recipe. Combine the Goop Mess and Espresso with the Dry Mix. Bake, stir, and cool. Easy. Expectable IP comment to follow.

Posted in Fun, Innovation | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Espresso Granola

Why I stepped away, and why I am back

I’ve been asked where I’ve been for the past year, and to brief about it, I decided to step away from writing and focus on other things, such as working with companies. I also felt that I had had enough … Continue reading

Posted in Commons, Innovation, Projects, Social Science, Technology Transfer | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Thorin’s Deal

For the past few months, I’ve been memorizing The Hobbit as part of a project of mine to have a look at how (my) memory works. So far I’m towards the end of Chapter 2. The poetry is the hardest … Continue reading

Posted in Agreements, Fun | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Recreating Bell Labs, or Not

It is time to get back to writing here. I will resume by pointing to a new article by Brian Potter at Construction Physics on Bell Labs, “What Would It Take to Recreate Bell Labs?” Potter identifies a number of … Continue reading

Posted in Technology Transfer | Tagged , | Comments Off on Recreating Bell Labs, or Not

10 Ways Universities Deal in Patents

I have been thinking about how university technology transfer is depicted, versus how it actually happens. The depictions are something of a prophetic hope–inventions reported to the university’s licensing office will be evaluated for “commercial potential” and those that look … Continue reading

Posted in Patents, Technology Transfer | Tagged , | Comments Off on 10 Ways Universities Deal in Patents

Bayh-Dole, Federal Agency Conflict of Interest, and the Covid Vaccines

Here is a recent video clip of an interview with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He asserts that it was known that HCQ and Ivermectin were effective in treating corona viruses by 2004. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claims that "We knew … Continue reading

Posted in Bayh-Dole, Policy | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Bayh-Dole, Federal Agency Conflict of Interest, and the Covid Vaccines

Faculty Strategies for Getting Their IP Back, 2

Here are some strategies for getting IP back that don’t work or avoid IP ownership. (1) Don’t disclose an invention to the university, and file for a patent on your own. Your application will be published in a year or … Continue reading

Posted in Bayh-Dole, IP, Technology Transfer | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Faculty Strategies for Getting Their IP Back, 2

Faculty Strategies for Getting Their IP Back

If you are a faculty member at an American university, you will get a lot of twisted advice from your university technology transfer office about intellectual property, Bayh-Dole, and patent policy. The advice (and descriptions about technology transfer) is mostly … Continue reading

Posted in Bozonet, Policy, Technology Transfer | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Faculty Strategies for Getting Their IP Back