Category Archives: Policy

UW’s Fast Start template, another bad bureaucratic idea gone bad, 7

Posted on December 19, 2020 by Gerald Barnett

We have been working through the arguments for universities implementing one-size-fits-all licensing templates for their spinout companies, so that all spinouts are treated the same–as if university spinouts are all the same, or should be made to become all the … Continue reading →

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UW’s Fast Start template, another bad bureaucratic idea gone bad, 6

Posted on December 18, 2020 by Gerald Barnett

The University of Washington recently “rolled out” a “FAST start” template license agreement for university spinout companies–companies started by inventive researchers at the university to develop their inventions as commercial products. For spinout companies, the UW’s practice is to demand … Continue reading →

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UW’s Fast Start template, another bad bureaucratic idea gone bad, 5

Posted on December 18, 2020 by Gerald Barnett

We have been discussing GeekWire’s account of the UW FAST start one-size-fits-all template agreement for startups. We showed that UW’s figures for startups were incorrect and there was little need for such a template. We then turned to H. Holden … Continue reading →

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UW’s Fast Start template, another bad bureaucratic idea gone bad, 4

Posted on December 17, 2020 by Gerald Barnett

H. Holden Thorp, editor in chief at Science magazine and formerly chancellor at Washington University and before that the University of North Carolina, published an editorial in Science, “An opportunity to improve innovation” that provides insight on the UW FAST … Continue reading →

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UW’s Fast Start template, another bad bureaucratic idea gone bad, 3

Posted on December 16, 2020 by Gerald Barnett

GeekWire published an article about what UW calls its new scheme to shorten negotiations with its spinout teams–UW personnel who have invented in their research labs and want to start a company to develop applications and products for their inventions. … Continue reading →

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

Posted on December 14, 2020 by Gerald Barnett

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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Necessary Federal Exclusive Licensing

Posted on November 29, 2020 by Gerald Barnett

The Harbridge House report in 1968 mused that based on survey responses from nonprofit patent administrators, . . . the inventions must frequently arise from basic research and require substantial private development before reaching the stage where they are commercially … Continue reading →

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The Turning Point in Federal Patent Policy

Posted on November 28, 2020 by Gerald Barnett

1971. Here’s where things started to go bad. In 1963, President Kennedy issued a memorandum setting forth executive branch patent policy. When the federal government acquired inventions, the policy stipulated that patents would be made available “through dedication or licensing”–that … Continue reading →

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Why is an invention a subject invention?–1

Posted on November 4, 2020 by Gerald Barnett

Let’s look at three antecedents for Bayh-Dole’s definition of “subject invention”: The Institutional Patent Agreement master, 1968, that allowed participating non-profits to end-run DWEW contracting policy and take ownership of inventions made with NIH funding (Latker said that Bayh-Dole was … Continue reading →

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When to disclose inventions at universities? More!

Posted on October 28, 2020 by Gerald Barnett

Most university patent policies don’t specify exactly when to disclose an invention. “Promptly” is the recurrent–and meaningless–requirement. Here’s Northwestern University: to protect academic priority as well as commercial priority, any Inventor making any Invention or Discovery subject to this policy … Continue reading →

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