Category Archives: Freedom

Be Advocates for the Doers

Universities prior to Bayh-Dole generally pushed invention management to external agents. These agents took on the expense, the complexity, the competitive issues, and the liability. These agents allowed universities to avoid direct conflicts of interest between managing the research environment … Continue reading

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Incommensurate Innovation Mindsets

Alasdair McIntyre in After Virtue presents two contrasting arguments. Shortened up and re-cast slightly, they are: (a) Justice demands that every citizen should enjoy equal opportunity to develop his or her talents. But that requires equal access to health care … Continue reading

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Ten Reasons Why Deans and Provosts Should Support Freedom to Innovate

Freedom to innovate policies limit the manner in which universities and other non-profit organizations claim ownership of intellectual property developed in the research and instructional programs they host. These limitations, far from being adverse to institutional interests, promote a creative, … Continue reading

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The Woody Guthrie Public License

Kevin Carson wrote a book a few years ago called Organizational Theory:  A Libertarian Perspective. In it, he develops a number of concepts that ought to be central to university thinking about research and innovation. Carson picks up on Ronald Coase‘s question–if … Continue reading

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A Redtail’s Dream for University IP Management

  [Update 10/21/2018: Sundberg raised $124,000 on Indiegogo to print book one of her webcomic Stand Still. Stay Silent. She then raised $250,000 on Kickstarter to print book two. The webcomic is available “for free” on the web. Sundberg has … Continue reading

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Moose Turd Pie, and No Good

The Economist ran a cover story last week on “how science goes wrong”: An argument of the piece is that journals like splashy claims but don’t have room for studies that announce validation of prior reports. The article goes on … Continue reading

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Unpacking the Code of Silence

Inside Higher Education has run a story on the AAUP Freedom to Innovate initiative, quoting a number of people who think it’s a good idea.  And it is!  But there is one person who thinks compulsory university ownership of faculty … Continue reading

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AAUP Supports Freedom to Innovate

The AAUP has just published a draft report that lays out the case for the importance of academic freedom with regard to patents.  Just because faculty scholarship may include inventive work does not trigger a mandate for absolute university control … Continue reading

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Innovation Wants Freedom

The university invention equity approach was so much the better than the present compulsory ownership approach. The equity discussion is flexible and allows for a broader set of responses.  It can consider acknowledgement, repayment, shop rights, a license to the … Continue reading

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University Patent Policies, Past and Present, Part I

How should a university (faculty, students, staff, administrators, alumni, sponsors and donors, regents, governments) manage inventions made by those hosted by the university? It is a big question, and it may be a misleading one. There are all sorts of … Continue reading

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