Category Archives: Metrics

End the disaster of university patenting for exclusive licensing

While there is a place for exclusive patent licensing (but why not just assign?), the university screws over its public mission by involving itself in exclusive deals. Just because those deals aren’t obvious to the public unless they make big … Continue reading

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Inventors would own more, were it not for noncompliant Bayh-Dole practice

I saw this tweet this morning: I agree Inventors should own more, but institutions were/are the heart of Bayh-Dole that (arguably) enables IP-driven startups… this is bc many/most PI inventions would go into a black hole without tech transfer officer … Continue reading

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UW’s Fast Start template, a bad bureaucratic idea gone bad, 1

GeekWire ran an article recently announcing that the University of Washington has “unveiled” a new licensing scheme for startups: “Univ. of Washington rolls out new licensing process to streamline negotiations with spinouts.” Let’s work through this article and see what … Continue reading

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University Patent Policy for Effective Technology Transfer, 4: The Eat and Fart Model

No one in their right mind reads a book primarily because it has a copyright. “Gosh, all these books in the public domain–I need to find one with a solid, enforced copyright!” Similarly, technologists with stable brains do not seek … Continue reading

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On Technology Transfer Metrics, 6: What university administrators want most

We are looking at metrics for managing university-based technology transfer and policy. First, we have none. We have disconnected proxies that don’t inform either management or policy. Let’s look at what university administrators care about: money. That’s it. I have … Continue reading

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On Technology Transfer Metrics, 5: Metrics relative to mission

Who it is that most wants technology change. Or, more particularly, who is it that we ought to want to make technology change? My bet is that the top of that list is not occupied by patent bureaucrats. It’s not, … Continue reading

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On Technology Transfer Metrics, 4: Technology transfer and technology change

We have been talking university technology transfer metrics. First, that there aren’t any metrics. No one bothers to collect them or report them. Instead we get proxies of activity–number of patents, number of licenses. Once one has patents, then one … Continue reading

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On Technology Transfer Metrics, 3: Money

Universities don’t track their transfers, the federal government does not track university transfers, and professional organizations and nonprofits do not track university transfers. Law firms don’t track university transfers. Venture capital firms don’t track university transfers. Pretty much anyone who … Continue reading

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On Technology Transfer Metrics, 2: Management

There are uses for metrics in business. One is to make management decisions. Consider this repeated bit of nonsense–you can’t manage what you don’t measure. There’s a veneer of truth in that, along the lines of “if you measure it, … Continue reading

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On Technology Transfer Metrics, 1: Issues

Let’s follow up on the fact that there’s no publicly available–free–data source to track university to industry technology transfer. There’s no non-free data source to track such transfer, either. You would think there would be. To get at metrics, let’s … Continue reading

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