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Author Archives: Gerald Barnett
Bayh-Dole–six parts real, one part faux
Bayh-Dole is a law in six real parts and one faux part. There’s a policy part (35 USC 200, 201, 206, 210-212); requirements for contractor owned inventions (35 USC 202(a, b), 203, 204, 205); requirements for federally owned inventions (35 … Continue reading
Bayh-Dole’s only purpose is to exploit public suffering for profit
The Bayh-Dole Act was created to permit the pharmaceutical industry to gain patent monopolies over inventions in medicinal chemistry made with federal government support. I have been through the history. I have worked through law for a decade. I practiced … Continue reading
Posted in Bayh-Dole, Policy, Stanford v Roche
Tagged Bayh-Dole, bluster, Stanford v Roche
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On Not Crossing Donner Pass
Turn anywhere in university technology transfer and you will find the “Valley of Death.” This Valley of Death, goes the argument, is the reason why it is so difficult to license patents to industry to create commercial products. There’s just … Continue reading
Posted in Bozonet, Social Science
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Helge Holst’s 1963 Argument for Institutional Control of Government Inventions
In 1963, Helge Holst, an attorney for Arthur D. Little and member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s National Defense Committee, published a report titled “Government Patent Policy: Its Impact on Contractor Cooperation with the Government and Widespread Use of … Continue reading
Posted in History
Tagged bigly things, Holst, imagined world, invention, nonsense
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The Biddle Report’s Perfectly Fine Assumptions
From time to time, I revisit territory. I wrote about this issue almost two years ago, now. I provide here a different angle that gets at the same point. Here’s Sean O’Connor proposing that a flawed assumption in the U.S. … Continue reading
Posted in Bayh-Dole, History, Policy, Stanford v Roche
Tagged assignment, assumption, Bayh-Dole, Biddle, faux, O'Connor
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The National Patent Planning Commission argument for government-created private patent monopolies, 3
The National Patent Planning Commission quotes administration officials repeating this same argument. Here’s the Under Secretary of Agriculture (1941): The commercial exploitation of new inventions requires, in many cases, the expenditure of large sums of money. In such a case, … Continue reading
Posted in History, Innovation, Policy
Tagged invention, National Patent Planning Commission, patent, pharma, Vannevar Bush
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The National Patent Planning Commission argument for government-created private patent monopolies, 2
We are looking at the National Patent Planning Commission argument that the government should be permitted to grant exclusive patent licenses on inventions that it acquires. The basic position is that it is a good thing that the government should … Continue reading
Posted in History, Innovation, Policy
Tagged Archie Palmer, National Patent Planning Commission, patents, university research
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The National Patent Planning Commission argument for government-created private patent monopolies, 1
I have been working through reports from the mid 1940s on government ownership of patents. There are a number of arguments against government exploitation of patents, but these arguments clearly failed. What arguments won out? Here’s one, from the National … Continue reading
Posted in History, Innovation, Policy
Tagged National Patent Planning Commission, open source, PARC, patent, Richard White, Steven Johnson
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Optimism for a New Year
It’s a whole new year, rather than just December 32. In 2017, Research Enterprise published over 250 articles on various aspects of invention policy and innovation, with lots of attention on the Bayh-Dole Act and on universities that cannot seem … Continue reading
The loss of public information in Bayh-Dole’s allocation of principal rights, 2
The effort to deal with government favoritism in handing out patent monopolies in areas of public welfare of direct interest to government requires a socially acceptable rationale. That rationale takes the form of a public covenant that runs with the … Continue reading