Author Archives: Gerald Barnett

The Rat in Bayh-Dole’s Rotten Pickle Barrel: 35 USC 202(c)(5)

Most of the Bayh-Dole pundits out there in the university patent and license world have never understood Bayh-Dole. I’m not sure all that many have read the statute. Certainly if they did so, they read without comprehension. Take this recent … Continue reading

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Thinking about projects, small and big–5

Consider the implications of an assignment of an invention in the context of big projects and greater inventions. If one assigns an invention, having already granted a license to that invention, then the license follows the assignment–unless, of course, the … Continue reading

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Regulatory Blah-Blah and the Public Interest in Inventions

Look, if two different units of the same company come to you to support research, and the units offer different and conflicting terms for their funding, then you tell them to knock their heads together and figure out just what … Continue reading

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Thinking about projects, small and big–4

Let’s repeat, for the sake of emphasis. If a sponsor supports a project, and that project is part of a larger project, then the sponsor necessarily also supports the larger project. It doesn’t matter that there is separate accounting for … Continue reading

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Thinking about projects, small and big–3

We have used a scenario to illustrate the relationship between small projects and big projects in a university research environment. In a sense, this relationship between projects is one of the key drivers of research enterprise. It’s not just that … Continue reading

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Thinking about projects, small and big–2

We are working our way through the idea of project–a succession of tasks to accomplish some purpose. A small project is a project in which there is just such a succession of tasks and some purpose. We can call a … Continue reading

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Thinking about projects, small and big–1

Let’s consider “big” projects. A project can be bigger than any particular part of it described by a particular budget to support specific work. Similarly, an invention can be bigger than any given patent filed on some part of it. … Continue reading

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Thinking about projects, small and big–0

People talk about creating patent rights from inventions. That’s a way of creating an IP position from a NIPIA position. An invention is not IP–it’s NIPIA. But in this talk, people are generally oblivious to the importance of creating projects … Continue reading

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Thinking about projects, small and big– (-1)

A fundamental concept in university research enterprise is the project. In management-speak, the project is the key intangible asset created in research enterprise, the key form of NIPIA–“non-IP intangible asset.” A project is the soil in which the tubers of … Continue reading

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Thanksgiving 2017

To all those who seek to discover, invent, collect, develop, create, author, realize, and do something with any of that–thank you for your efforts, your insights, your inspiration. For those who build administrative systems to support such work–thank you, too. … Continue reading

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