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Category Archives: Patents
Cornboard, Part 2
Despite various announcements about possible products and manufacturing, Cornboard Manufacturing appears not to have manufactured much of anything by the time the Illinois patent expired in 2016. Although the company did not “disappear” like Illinois’s first exclusive licensee, it did … Continue reading
Cornboard, Part 1
The Bayh-Dole Coalition, an evidence-free lobbying organization in support of not enforcing Bayh-Dole’s public protections, tweeted today a “success” story: Success Story! @UofIllinois 3 Researchers developed a product known as “CornBoard”, a way to make composite materials from corn to … Continue reading
Posted in Bayh-Dole, Patents, Technology Transfer
Tagged cornboard, Illinois, invention, skateboard
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Mixing Two Governments’ Funding
Here’s an interesting statement of government rights in a University of Arizona patent, 9239453 B2. (I’d link to the USPTO patent server, but since the change in search software, it’s not obviously possible.): GOVERNMENT RIGHTS (1) This invention was made … Continue reading
The use of the patent system for federal research results, 7: Failure of FSA 110-1 to establish a middle ground
Let’s look more carefully at this second possibility beyond the possibility of open access–and where the “generally” in FSA 110-1 gets triggered to make at an attempted middle ground between always open access and full-on use of patents to exclude … Continue reading
Posted in History, Patents, Policy, Sponsored Research
Tagged 110, bother, excessive, FSA, middle ground, unreasonable
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The use of the patent system for federal research results, 6: The seeming middle ground
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
Posted in Open Source, Patents, Policy
Tagged 110-1, conditional, limited, open access
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The use of the patent system for federal research results, 4: Forman
We are looking slowly at FSA order 110-1, the policy that starts the administrative battle over how federal funding ought to affect company opportunities to profit on matters of public health. The FSA, having insisted that research results should be … Continue reading
Posted in History, Patents, Policy
Tagged 110, Forman, FSA, public interest, reasonable
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The use of the patent system for federal research results, 3: FSA 110-1 and public interest
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
Posted in Commons, History, Innovation, Open Source, Patents, Policy, Sponsored Research
Tagged 110, FSA, public interest
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The use of the patent system for federal research results, 2: Why universities patent
For an account that covers reasonably well the context for universities getting involved in patenting, see Elizabeth Popp Berman’s 2006 paper “Why Do Universities Patent? The Role of the Federal Government in Creating Modern Technology Transfer Practice” (draft here). What … Continue reading
The use of the patent system for federal research results, 1: Dubilier
It starts with Dubilier. In 1933, the Supreme Court decided in Dubilier that federal employees, just because they were employed, did not give up their personal–Constitutional–rights in inventions that they made. Considering the possible differences between private employment and federal … Continue reading
Goodyear and use of a gateway patent to control a big Invention
In Medical Monopoly Joseph Gabriel describes how Charles Goodyear used patents to lock out competitors from using his process for “vulcanizing” rubber without a license. We will use Gabriel’s account to consider alternatives to the prevailing university narrative about how … Continue reading
Posted in Freedom, Innovation, Patents, Policy
Tagged big Invention, Gabriel, gateway, Goodyear
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