Category Archives: Patents

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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An odd statement of government interest in a Navy “UFO” patent

Here’s US patent 10322827. One of the “UFO” patents. It’s interesting physics, if not controversial, for being innovative in an institutional world that has made innovation mostly boring. But we are concerned with something else here.

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Madison on the patent clause–and Young Frankenstein

James Madison, writing in the Federalist (43), discusses the Constitution’s patent clause. The discussion is brief, so here it is, with comments: A power “to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing, for a limited time, to … Continue reading

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Administrative lupus

I while ago I wrote an article on some suggestions for changing Bayh-Dole. The first suggestion was to add a research “exemption.” The authors–one a former senior university patent administrator from a very big university–were well meaning, and perhaps there … Continue reading

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