Category Archives: Agreements

Five Law Cases for University IP Management

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Gerald Barnett

Here are some law cases involving intellectual property that faculty considering IP policies and scholarship should be aware of. I give a date for a primary decision (there are all sorts of proceedings for these cases), a brief summary, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Agreements, Bayh-Dole, IP, Policy, Stanford v Roche | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The Free Play of Free Intellects

Posted on August 3, 2013 by Gerald Barnett

The Bayh-Dole Act has been championed as a great turning point in the federal government’s management of inventions made by university faculty (for the most part) supported by federal money. The impression meant to be left with us is that … Continue reading →

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Expenses (including payments to inventors)

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Gerald Barnett

Stanford’s claim on a quarter billion dollars in royalties in Stanford v Roche turned on the little word “of” in the construction “of a contractor” as part of the definition of subject invention.  “Of” it turns out, has its ordinary … Continue reading →

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The (f)(2) agreement that your university must require you to sign

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Gerald Barnett

[Updated for the 2018 NIST regulatory revisions.] If you are working on a grant at a university, and the grant is from the US Government, and your university has accepted a standard patent rights clause in the form of 37 … Continue reading →

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University patent policies as covert non-compete covenants

Posted on December 18, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

I have been looking at laws regarding non-compete covenants.  A non-compete agreement aims to prevent a worker from accepting other work that would compete with his or her employer or business partner.  In employment situations, this might include non-solicitation of … Continue reading →

Posted in Agreements, Freedom, IP, Policy | 1 Comment

A bureaucrat’s thumb in every hopeful innovation pie

Posted on November 28, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

Advocates of the “faux” Bayh-Dole make the claim that the inspired part of the Act is that it gives ownership of faculty inventive work supported by federal funds to university bureaucrats for their fun and profit. I know, I’ve skipped … Continue reading →

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Extending Affiliates Programs

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

“Affiliates programs” are generally donation-based financial support programs for university departments and schools.  In exchange for a membership fee, an affiliate program participant gets various premiums–invitations to research reviews, open houses, and job fairs; access to university labs and faculty … Continue reading →

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Thinking like App.net

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

The App.net folks are thinking about how to develop an approach to open systems that rewards 3rd party contributions.  Dalton Caldwell has a nice discussion of one approach in a recent blog post.  Imagine that there’s a set cut of … Continue reading →

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Invention use or patent use, which will it be?

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

A while back I looked at the Lambert agreements.  These are model agreements developed in the UK that aim to normalize research arrangements between universities and companies.   My review of them argued that they were a bit sloppy and inconsistent, … Continue reading →

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The BioBrick BPA and Group Dynamics

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

The BioBricks Foundation supports a repository of “parts” for use in synthetic biology. It has implemented an interesting two-part arrangement called the BioBrick Public Agreement or BPA. This agreement aims to manage the interests of contributors and users of the … Continue reading →

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