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Category Archives: Policy
Moose Turd Pie, and No Good
The Economist ran a cover story last week on “how science goes wrong”: An argument of the piece is that journals like splashy claims but don’t have room for studies that announce validation of prior reports. The article goes on … Continue reading
Posted in Bad Science, Freedom, Innovation, Policy, Technology Transfer
Tagged Ioannidis, IP, moose turd pie, policy, Teece
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Where have you gone, Curt Flood?
It should be clear by now: universities have no basis to compel assignment of faculty intellectual property. The basis for faculty assignment of IP is voluntary agreement–either at employment because a faculty member is expressly hired to invent something, or … Continue reading
Posted in Bad Science, History, Policy, Present Assignment
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Forms of ownership failure in compulsory university IP policies
Let’s look at intellectual property ownership in the context of faculty work. For scholarship, we can identify six forms of ownership: ownership of inventions (patent), original works of authorship (copyright), marks used in commerce (trademark), information (trade secret), tangible stuff … Continue reading
Invention is injury
I have been mulling over “scope of employment” and “course of employment” and “official duties” and related constructions that show up repeatedly in university patent policies. A strange thing about these matters is that there are two very different bodies … Continue reading
Getting Closer to the Heart
What is the purpose of university intellectual property policy? This question is not idle. For decades, Archie Palmer worked to get universities to adopt formal patent and research policies, publishing accounts of various university policy statements, together with commentary on … Continue reading
Posted in Bad Science, Policy
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The loneliness of the tail gunner
A while back I wrote about Vannever Bush’s distinction between institutions based on confidence and ones based on fear and related this distinction to institutional patent policies. In a rather different context, Richard Lindzen of MIT takes up other problems … Continue reading
Posted in Policy, Sponsored Research, Technology Transfer
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University Patent Claim Gridlock
Robert Cook-Deegan drew my attention to an essay by Josh Weitz at The Tree of Life blog. Weitz discusses his adventures with colliding claims for ownership of future inventions between two universities. It is well worth the read. Weitz makes a … Continue reading
Posted in Agreements, Policy, Present Assignment
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Unpacking the Code of Silence
Inside Higher Education has run a story on the AAUP Freedom to Innovate initiative, quoting a number of people who think it’s a good idea. And it is! But there is one person who thinks compulsory university ownership of faculty … Continue reading
Posted in Bayh-Dole, Freedom, Policy, Present Assignment, Sponsored Research
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AAUP Supports Freedom to Innovate
The AAUP has just published a draft report that lays out the case for the importance of academic freedom with regard to patents. Just because faculty scholarship may include inventive work does not trigger a mandate for absolute university control … Continue reading
Posted in Freedom, Innovation, Policy, Technology Transfer
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Worthless Patents
In my internet travels, I came across a useful article by Kimberly A. Moore titled “Worthless Patents.” At the time she wrote the article, she was a law professor at George Mason. Presently she is a judge with the Court … Continue reading