Category Archives: Agreements

Ten Ways to Avoid the License Contract

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

Judge Learned Hand: Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase … Continue reading →

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Mozilla Public License 2.0

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

The April Roche & Associés newsletter has a discussion of the new Mozilla public license.  Changes work to coordinate the MPL with the various GPLs from the Free Software Foundation, make a clearer distinction between the management of source code … Continue reading →

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Present Assignment Agreements, the Coming Nightmare for University IP Practice

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

This turned out to be a longish essay for a blog environment. It’s not for everyone. It puts together arguments against the idea that present assignments somehow address the Stanford v Roche situation, or situations like it, or are otherwise … Continue reading →

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Are university faculty employees wrt research IP?

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

Are faculty “employees” for the purpose of intellectual property in research?  I argue they are not.  Here’s a sketch of my reasoning. Consider: Faculty choose their research topics.  They choose where they will do their work (university or not).  They … Continue reading →

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More Bad Science = Tech Transfer Changes

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

Another summary  of “bad science”, this time in bright graphics with emphasis on biomedical and clinical psychology.  If 1 in 3 scientists are cooking their results a little longer than they should, should technology transfer offices be a lot more … Continue reading →

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The Agreement on Top of the Agreement

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Gerald Barnett

Karen White, a veteran of technology transfer and research development, has started a blog on innovation and technology transfer called Almost White Papers.   In a recent post, she makes a great point: Technology transfer does work when the parties to … Continue reading →

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Thoughts on the role of sale in licensing

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Gerald Barnett

I am working through some more history of academic inventions and their subsequent deployment.  This article provides a useful perspective on the Cohen-Boyer gene splicing patents.  The article points out the role of the Stanford OTL in making companies aware … Continue reading →

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Present Assignment ADD at UC

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Gerald Barnett

The University of California has present assignment language in its “Patent Acknowledgment“: I acknowledge my obligation to assign, and do hereby assign, inventions and patents that I conceive or develop within the course and scope of my University employment while … Continue reading →

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Drafting the Unknown

Posted on October 29, 2011 by Gerald Barnett

As I’m reading through university IP policies, I’ve begun to notice how those drafting the policies are grappling with the unknown. There are a number of unknowns–many policies don’t evidence that the drafters know IP, and others work hard to … Continue reading →

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Transmogrifying Bayh-Dole into University Self-Interest, Wisconsin-style

Posted on October 1, 2011 by Gerald Barnett

The University of Wisconsin system provides a template agreement that is meant to satisfy the (f)(2) requirement.  Let’s work through it to see what parts are required by the standard patent rights clause in Bayh-Dole, what parts are inserted by … Continue reading →

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