Category Archives: Freedom

Dubilier, university IP policy and, er, inner life

Posted on August 24, 2024 by Gerald Barnett

Dubilier set in motion a cascade of things that leads us to, well, to where we are. In Dubilier, the Supreme Court established that inventors own their inventions unless they agree otherwise, even if they are employees, and even if … Continue reading →

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Five Steps to Restoring an Effective University IP Practice, Step 5

Posted on February 14, 2022 by Gerald Barnett

We have been working through five steps to restore a university’s IP practice to something that. might be modestly effective. Abandon AUTM, which has worked for decades against effective IP policy and practices. Abandon compulsory university ownership claims. You may … Continue reading →

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Five Steps to Restoring an Effective University IP Practice, Step 3

Posted on February 11, 2022 by Gerald Barnett

We are working through five steps to restoring your university IP practice to something effective and conscionable. The third step involves a fundamental, but again simple, change in policy. Current IP policy at most universities does not address non-exclusive and … Continue reading →

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Five Steps to Restoring an Effective University IP Practice, Steps 1 and 2

Posted on February 10, 2022 by Gerald Barnett

Over the past couple of years, I have been involved in projects based in the idea of commons for the exchange of research and diagnostic assets. These projects have been blocked or resisted at each point by organizational technology transfer … Continue reading →

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Goodyear and use of a gateway patent to control a big Invention

Posted on July 28, 2021 by Gerald Barnett

In Medical Monopoly Joseph Gabriel describes how Charles Goodyear used patents to lock out competitors from using his process for “vulcanizing” rubber without a license. We will use Gabriel’s account to consider alternatives to the prevailing university narrative about how … Continue reading →

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The Faculty Stack, 4: Frontiers Science and Other Science

Posted on April 15, 2021 by Gerald Barnett

We are working toward the faculty stack. To get there, however, we need context. We started with Vannevar Bush’s problem–how to connect federal resources to the free play of free intellects to expand the frontiers of science. The new awareness … Continue reading →

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The Faculty Stack, 3: Linking Federal Resources with Free Play

Posted on April 12, 2021 by Gerald Barnett

We are working through the idea that faculty independence is an important element in the justification to push federal funding for research activities to universities. For Vannevar Bush, the idea was that the frontiers of science were best explored by … Continue reading →

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The faculty stack, 2: Basic Research and IP Policy

Posted on April 8, 2021 by Gerald Barnett

The idea I will pursue here is that university faculty represent a distinct and important kind of discoverer–researcher, investigator, noodler, gadgeteer, irrelevanteur, loon. Our search for what we cannot imagine depends in having at least some really capable folks out … Continue reading →

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The VPR Letters, No. 4

Posted on January 24, 2021 by Gerald Barnett

Dear Vice Provost for Research, It’s been a while, and I thought I would drop you another note to help you with your management of university-hosted intellectual property. I once was contacted by a vice provost of research at a … Continue reading →

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The Turning Point in Federal Patent Policy

Posted on November 28, 2020 by Gerald Barnett

1971. Here’s where things started to go bad. In 1963, President Kennedy issued a memorandum setting forth executive branch patent policy. When the federal government acquired inventions, the policy stipulated that patents would be made available “through dedication or licensing”–that … Continue reading →

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