Search the RE article base
Contact Information
Twitter
My TweetsUseful Web Sites
Category Archives: Policy
When to disclose inventions? Part I. Arizona State
Here is a basic question: When should university-based inventors disclose their inventions to the university administration? This is a remarkably difficult question. Is it when the invention is “made”? If so, what does it mean to “make” an invention? What … Continue reading
The Purpose of the Patent System for University Research
There is a general argument that the patent is a pretty useful cultural tool to stimulate and reward technological innovation. The owner of a patent has the right to exclude others from practicing (making, having made, using, selling, offering for … Continue reading
Posted in Bayh-Dole, Commons, Freedom, History, Policy, Social Science, Technology Transfer
Comments Off on The Purpose of the Patent System for University Research
Dual selectivity or dual monopoly? What’ll it be?
Archie Palmer’s surveys of university patent policies make clear that most universities for a long time did not have a patent policy, and when they did write a policy, often it recorded ad hoc practices–for the vast majority of universities, … Continue reading
Posted in Freedom, History, Innovation, Policy, Technology Transfer
Comments Off on Dual selectivity or dual monopoly? What’ll it be?
Patent policy as norming myth, with antidotes
Among those developing university patent policies, Archie Palmer was the Johnny Appleseed, publishing surveys and discussions of university patent policies for over three decades, from the 1930s to the 1960s. Palmer argued that it was important that universities have patent … Continue reading
Compel them to come in
The Christian religion became political when Constantine decriminalized Christianity (313) and Theodorus later made it the state religion (380). At that point, the ad hoc development of beliefs and founding texts became a matter of official business–the norming myths required … Continue reading
Posted in Freedom, History, Policy, Social Science
Comments Off on Compel them to come in
Dealing with Norming Myths
There’s a new study out at Future Internet that looks at how Wikipedia’s norms have developed over the years. In “The Evolution of Wikipedia’s Norm Network,” Bradi Heaberlin and Simon DeDeo examine Wikipedia’s form of governance and find it to … Continue reading
Academic freedom, autonomy, and patrons
Paul Feyerabend, in the next to last essay of Farewell To Reason, responds to some of his critics, who state that they “believe in the autonomy of art, thought, and feeling over money.” Feyerabend is characteristically incisive in his reply. … Continue reading
Was Bayh-Dole based on a misconception?
In an article published in 2013, Sean O’Connor argues that Bayh-Dole is the descendant of what he calls “the Biddle Report,” produced in 1947 by Assistant Attorney General John F. Sonnett (with final editing done by David Lloyd Kreeger) in … Continue reading
Posted in Bayh-Dole, History, Policy, Sponsored Research, Stanford v Roche
Tagged Biddle, government contract, invention, patent, university policy
Comments Off on Was Bayh-Dole based on a misconception?
NASA Turns Bayh-Dole Into a Vesting Statute
The US Supreme Court in Stanford v Roche ruled that Bayh-Dole was not a “vesting statute”–the law did not place ownership of patentable inventions made with federal support with the universities that hosted the research: Stanford contends that reading the … Continue reading
Posted in Bayh-Dole, Policy, Present Assignment, Stanford v Roche
Tagged Bayh-Dole, FAR, NASA, Stanford v Roche, subject invention
Comments Off on NASA Turns Bayh-Dole Into a Vesting Statute
The Mindset That Promotes Servile Relationships
In my last article, I cited claims from an article that insists that faculty are employees, employees have a duty of fidelity to their employers, fidelity sounds like fiduciary, so faculty have a fiduciary duty to their universities and therefore … Continue reading
Posted in Agreements, Policy
Comments Off on The Mindset That Promotes Servile Relationships