Category Archives: IP

Regulatory limitations on fun-lovin’ university patent administrators

My argument is that university patents aren’t like other patents–not like corporate patents, not like entrepreneur patents, not like speculator patents. My argument also is that universities are limited in how they manage patents, and therefore they are not in … Continue reading

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Should universities manage patents like corporations do?

We have discussed how university-owned patents are not like other patents. A university owner of patents is not free to do just anything with a patent. A university-held patent is not simply a property right–there are limitations (though many university patent administrators are … Continue reading

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Free Competition and Reasonable Pricing of Products Based on Subject Inventions

I have argued that the Bayh-Dole Act establishes, for inventions made with federal support at universities, a principle of patent exhaustion. We might call it a “first use” exhaustion of patent rights. Since the express, statutory purpose of the Act … Continue reading

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University Patent Management, Part I

Should a patent on an invention made at a university be managed any differently from a patent on an invention made in a company or made by an independent inventor? That’s a fundamental question, and one that shapes university patent policies … Continue reading

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Abstraction as an Obfuscating Drafting Technique in University Patent Policies

The Arizona Board of Regents intellectual property policy fails to state, simply, that the Board expects to own patentable inventions made by employees who have agreed to assign their inventions to the Board. Instead, the Board policy fusses around with … Continue reading

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When to disclose inventions? Part I. Arizona State

Here is a basic question: When should university-based inventors disclose their inventions to the university administration? This is a remarkably difficult question. Is it when the invention is “made”? If so, what does it mean to “make” an invention? What … Continue reading

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The University of Michigan Mess of an Old Patent Policy, Part IV

In a series of three articles (here, here, and here), I showed how the University of Michigan intellectual property policy apparatus managed–or didn’t manage–patents and copyrights. One problem is Regents Bylaw 3.10. The Bylaw sets out conditions under which it is … Continue reading

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The University of Michigan’s Mess of a Copyright Policy, Part III

Part I of this series looked at the University of Michigan 1944 patent policy and its transmogrified afterlife as Regents Bylaw 3.10, and the strange Supplemental Appointment Information invention present assignment document that claims to derive from Bylaw 3.10. Part … Continue reading

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The University of Michigan’s Mess of a Technology Transfer Policy, Part II

In Part I of this series, we looked at the University of Michigan patent policy from 1944, which was still in effect in 1962, its unsettled relationship to the Board of Regents Bylaw 3.10, and a present assignment form last … Continue reading

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The rise of “employee” as a means to pervert university IP policy

We live in a society dominated by the public stock corporation and the manner in which it engages work. It has only been since the late 19th century that the public stock corporation has come to have this role, though … Continue reading

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