Category Archives: Policy

The FPR criteria for invention ownership–1

In June 1973, The Executive Subcommittee of the Federal Council for Science and Technology’s Committee on Government Patent Policy at the U.S. Department of Commerce, tasked with the codification of the patent policy established by President Nixon, made the following … Continue reading

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Patent rights follow-up: from the FPR to BD–2

We are working through the Federal Procurement Regulations (1975) advice with regard to the exercise of rights in inventions made in projects receiving federal support. We have looked at the first part of the opening statement and made the point … Continue reading

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Patent rights follow-up: from the FPR to BD–1

Here’s some advice in the Federal Procurement Regulations (1975) with regard to the operation of the patent rights clause covering subject inventions. Bayh-Dole is built from the ruins of the IPA program and the FPR by the same folks who … Continue reading

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Research, Nonresearch, and CDC Policy 557

The Centers for Disease Control has a document–Policy 557–that lays out when Institutional Review Board involvement is necessary with regard to distinctions between patient care and the involvement of patients in research. Here’s the basic policy: CDC has an ethical … Continue reading

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Bush v Kilgore v the Old Order v Now

In 2005, Nicholas Steneck at the University of Michigan taught a course in the history of science–“Science, Technology and Society–1940 to the Present.” Here’s his lecture outline for the part about federally funded science and engineering during World War 2: … Continue reading

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Inventor freedom and the unexpected model of innovation, 1

Consider an alternative to the present university administrator mania for patenting. Let’s start with inventor freedom and then look once more at what I call Vannevar Bush’s unexpected model of innovation. There are difficulties in the effort. First, the social … Continue reading

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Peace measures

In 1917, in the United States, six million people suffered from syphilis. The only drug that offered some relief at the time was an arsenic compound made in Germany called salvarsan. The United States entered the first world war against … Continue reading

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A century of reaping enormous profits at the expense of sickness and misfortune, 3

The Mayo doctors, having made their specific arguments with regard to salvarsan in their 1917 letter to Congress, end with a full scale plea, not only to cancel the patent for salvarsan but also for other German drugs, and for … Continue reading

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A century of reaping enormous profits at the expense of sickness and misfortune, 2

Mayo’s research publication Discovery’s Edge recently ran an article on “The Power of Patents.” In the article, Mayo Clinic wonders about patent royalties from a famous past invention: When Mayo Clinic colleagues Edward Kendall, Ph.D., and Philip Hench, M.D., along with … Continue reading

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A century of reaping enormous profits at the expense of sickness and misfortune, 1

In June 1917, the United States had just entered the first world war against Germany, and a German chemical maker through its American subsidiary Farbwerke-Hoechst held U.S. patents on salvarsan, a medicine used to treat syphilis. Along letters written on … Continue reading

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