Category Archives: Open Source

The use of the patent system for federal research results, 6: The seeming middle ground

Posted on August 3, 2021 by Gerald Barnett

While the FSA policy makes what appears to be nice gestures–royalty-free licensing or at least licensing without unreasonable restrictions and without excessive royalties–there’s little here to provide guidance so far. The policy continues, looking at the prong in which the … Continue reading →

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The use of the patent system for federal research results, 3: FSA 110-1 and public interest

Posted on July 31, 2021 by Gerald Barnett

Federal policy on inventions made in federally supported research starts in a big way with Federal Security Agency Order 110-1, dated December 30, 1952. Norman Latker, patent counsel for the NIH, in 1978 testimony before Senator Nelson’s subcommittee, identified Order … Continue reading →

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Does a university own software written by students?

Posted on April 10, 2020 by Gerald Barnett

I just posted to Quora in response to: If I study at a university and I create software in my own time, does the university own the licensing to my software? There’s no good general answer, since things vary by … Continue reading →

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What the NIH says about Bayh-Dole, 2

Posted on October 23, 2018 by Gerald Barnett

We are working through the NIH’s most recent misrepresentation of the Bayh-Dole Act. In the first part of this effort, we looked at the NIH’s bungling of the basic premise of Bayh-Dole and the concept of practical application. Bayh-Dole’s first … Continue reading →

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What the NIH says about Bayh-Dole, 1

Posted on October 22, 2018 by Gerald Barnett

The NIH has published comments on the NIST changes to the regulations that implement the Bayh-Dole Act and the standard patent rights clause. Jamie Love at Knowledge Ecology International calls out in a tweet a passage in the “Background” section in … Continue reading →

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Who Owns Digital Learning Resources?–6

Posted on September 10, 2018 by Gerald Barnett

Let’s come back around to Hal Plotkin’s question–who owns digital learning resources? Plotkin wants the answer to be: certainly not the university bureaucrats aiming to “commercialize” everything and therefore putting everything behind a paywall. That makes sense. Bureaucrats don’t have … Continue reading →

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Who Owns Digital Learning Resources?–5

Posted on September 7, 2018 by Gerald Barnett

There’s a basic problem with federal grant support for research. I don’t know if the Department of Education has avoided this problem, but I will put it out there. If a federal agency supports both research and maintenance of contract deliverables, … Continue reading →

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Who Owns Digital Learning Resources?–4

Posted on September 6, 2018 by Gerald Barnett

Now let’s deal with “digital” educational works in the context of university intellectual property claims. This is something I’ve spent a couple of decades dealing with. The Department of Education published its final rule in January 2017, requiring open licensing … Continue reading →

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AAU, APLU, and others aim to “bolster” federal technology transfer, 2

Posted on August 9, 2018 by Gerald Barnett

We are working through advice offered to NIST by various higher education associations on how to improve federal technology transfer by funding without oversight the “technology transfer” programs of non-federal institutions. If the gist is all you  need, then don’t … Continue reading →

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On Crossing the Commons

Posted on November 6, 2016 by Gerald Barnett

I was in a conversation with some folks associated with the University of Alaska and wrote the following bit about my past work. With a bit of editing for a different context, and the usual expansion to flesh things out … Continue reading →

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