Category Archives: IP

What should the federal government do with patents it issues to itself? Part 2

Posted on June 25, 2017 by Gerald Barnett

The Bayh-Dole Dissatisfaction with the Patent System According to its advocates, starting with Sen. Bayh, the idea of behind Bayh-Dole was to require federal agencies to pre-assign their ownership interest in invention contract deliverables to university contractors. It’s a clever … Continue reading →

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What should the federal government do with patents it issues to itself? Part 1

Posted on June 24, 2017 by Gerald Barnett

Here is a question: What should the federal government do with patents it issues to itself? Some Context In the 1940s and 1950s, as the United States government contracted for research services associated with the development of weapons systems and … Continue reading →

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That special special case 5: From invention to patent to flip

Posted on June 18, 2017 by Gerald Barnett

Patent System and Public Covenants If the patent system is good as it is, and does not require a public covenant to run with inventions made in federally supported research, then why should federal policy endorse the two circumventions of … Continue reading →

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That special special case 2: Circumventing the patent system

Posted on June 15, 2017 by Gerald Barnett

Here is the public policy agenda of Bayh-Dole. If one cuts through the apparatus and the happy-talk, Bayh-Dole stipulates that the patent system is to be used to create company monopolies on inventions made with private support, using private patent … Continue reading →

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DIY Plus: inventions, claims, and technology transfer

Posted on May 13, 2017 by Gerald Barnett

I will start with a mostly unreadable diagram: This is the rhetorical anatomy of the relationship between an invention and a patent, or a “claimed invention.” It is important to see the difference because people tend to talk about inventions … Continue reading →

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Exclusive License and Assignment

Posted on March 20, 2017 by Gerald Barnett

I have discussed in a number of articles the issue of exclusive license and assignment for inventions. The distinction matters under Bayh-Dole because Bayh-Dole’s standard patent rights clause (37 CFR 401.14(a)(k)(1)) forbids nonprofit contractors from assigning subject inventions other than to … Continue reading →

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Government Interest Patent Activity 1976 to 2016, Part 3

Posted on February 24, 2017 by Gerald Barnett

With this context, let’s return to our patent activity graphs. University and nonprofit patents with a government interest have grown from 10% of all patents citing a government interest to over 50%. This level of activity leveled off around 1998 … Continue reading →

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Government Interest Patent Activity 1976 to 2016, Part 2

Posted on February 23, 2017 by Gerald Barnett

Let’s turn to Research Corporation now. For decades, Research Corporation was the dominant invention management broker for universities. Even where universities created research foundations to manage inventions, those foundations often contracted with Research Corporation to do the actual patent work. … Continue reading →

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Government Interest Patent Activity 1976 to 2016, Part 1

Posted on February 22, 2017 by Gerald Barnett

I ran some patent numbers over the past week using the USPTO web search interface. It’s not the easiest search environment to use, and I don’t expect the numbers to be precise. But I expect the numbers are accurate enough to … Continue reading →

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Federal patent policy for the 21st Century, Part 1

Posted on December 23, 2016 by Gerald Barnett

How about a new Dole/Bayh Act? Of course, it will have different names attached to it. How about a law that tracks what Vannevar Bush recommended for scientific frontiers, nearly 75 years ago, in Science the Endless Frontier? One that puts inventors first. … Continue reading →

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