Category Archives: Agreements

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

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UW’s Fast Start template, another bad bureaucratic idea gone bad, 7

We have been working through the arguments for universities implementing one-size-fits-all licensing templates for their spinout companies, so that all spinouts are treated the same–as if university spinouts are all the same, or should be made to become all the … Continue reading

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A non-compliant Bayh-Dole written agreement at Yale-5

We are working through Yale’s “Patent Policy Acknowledgement & Agreement.” We have been looking at Paragraph 6 of the Yale patent policy to try to make sense of what inventions Yale really does assert an interest in. Paragraph 6 demands … Continue reading

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A non-compliant Bayh-Dole written agreement at Yale-4

We are working through Yale’s “Patent Policy Acknowledgement & Agreement.” Most recently we borked about employment and faculty freedom. Now let’s look at how the agreement deals with consulting. It tries to worry the problem of conflicting obligations–Yale doesn’t want … Continue reading

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A non-compliant Bayh-Dole written agreement at Yale-3

We are working through Yale’s “Patent Policy Acknowledgement & Agreement.” The agreement requires personnel signing it to “abide” by Yale’s patent policy, as if that patent policy does not apply but for this agreement. That’s a bit odd. Even odder, … Continue reading

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A non-compliant Bayh-Dole written agreement at Yale-2

Now let’s look at a “Patent Policy Acknowledgement & Agreement” from Yale University. Here it is: Yale’s web site asserts that this agreement is required “for grant and patent compliance.” That’s a strange combination–grant and patent. One might think grant … Continue reading

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A non-compliant Bayh-Dole written agreement at Yale-1

Bayh-Dole’s standard patent rights clause introduces a requirement not in Bayh-Dole. 37 CFR 401.14(f)(2) requires contractors to require their employees, other than clerical and non-technical employees, to make a written agreement to protect the government’s interest in subject inventions: The … Continue reading

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University inventions that aren’t exactly worthless-2

Companies, it turns out, are pretty good at evaluating inventions that are “worth” something to them. Companies with large research enterprises appear to be less good than others, however. The story at Xerox PARC was that inventors hoped that their … Continue reading

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Bayh-Dole Basics, 8: Reasonable Terms

[Short: There are two “reasonable” terms in Bayh-Dole. The first has to do with reasonable terms on offer to the public. These terms, including price, are the terms a reasonable person would expect if there were competition, even if a … Continue reading

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Invention Option Theory and Bayh-Dole Crock Work

At one point, many years ago, I thought Bayh-Dole was totally clever. I was very wrong, but here’s how I thought Bayh-Dole worked. The federal government had a general claim under federal law to own any invention made under federal … Continue reading

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