Category Archives: Policy

How we got here in twelve chapters, 2

2. The equities University faculty develop an approach to patents—mostly, keep them out of the university, use Research Corporation or a local research foundation. Agents provide services, take on the costs and risks, and share upsides with inventors and institutions. … Continue reading

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How we got here in twelve chapters, 1

A few days ago I sat down to work on a curriculum for innovation and found myself distracted by the outline of a book-length treatment of the development of university “technology transfer.” I emerged a few hours later with a … Continue reading

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The new university zombie IP policies

Migitating Private Business Use In a recent on-line article, Peter H. Serreze at Ropes & Gray, discusses private business use. The article offers strategies to mitigate the effect of the 5% limit on private business use (PBU) for the proceeds … Continue reading

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The Dag Wagging the Dog, Part 1

I have previously discussed Rev Proc 2007-47 and its forerunner Rev Proc 97-14. These “revenue procedures” set out an explanation by the Internal Revenue Service of how the research use of facilities financed with tax-free bonds could result in a determination … Continue reading

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University claims on non-supported inventive work

In a note on the Guide to Bayh-Dole, a reader asks: One point I have been particularly concerned with is the position taken by virtually all of the universities that if a university employee is hired as a consultant to … Continue reading

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You Make the Call–NIH Version

It’s time for you to test your reading ability with that of the aces at the NIH. Let’s see how well you can do! Here is NIH guidance on Bayh-Dole compliance for awardees of NIH grants: The Bayh-Dole Act includes … Continue reading

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That's what we all expect from you anyway.

We have had a time of it exposing the disingenuous claims by the University of Washington’s startup program. There is much more going on than the bits I’ve pointed out. But some folks would rather live the lie than restate their numbers … Continue reading

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Lock-in and Value-add in University IP Management

John Gruber at Daring Fireball points out a new article by Dave Winer, the developer of the RSS feed. The article is about “lock-in”–the effort to capture users to a particular technology product (and its infrastructure) as a way to … Continue reading

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Feeding the 6,000

[Updated with new figures for the figure-challenged] In his thoughtful interview with University of Washington president Michael Young, Benjamin Romano asked about what will happen to C4C now that the Hall patents have expired, something everyone has known was going … Continue reading

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Teaching Innovators to Innovate

Taleb in Antifragile, having commented on the invention of rollers on suitcases: The simpler and more obvious the discovery, the less equipped we are to figure it out by complicated methods. The key is that the significant can only be … Continue reading

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