Category Archives: Policy

The pernicious effect of expansive university claims on intellectual property

Here is a definition of “Intellectual Property” from a university tech transfer office web site: “Intellectual property” encompasses all forms of creativity, such as, inventions, software, discoveries, creative or artistic works, know-how, processes and unique materials. For example, intellectual property … Continue reading

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Why not just say, "We own your inventions to try to make money"?

I have been out collecting stuff in the wild.  By the “wild” I mean at university technology transfer office web sites.  Bluck.  What a slog!  It’s a dirty, nasty bit of work, that is, in the mud and detrius of … Continue reading

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What is Bayh-Dole and why is it important to Technology Transfer?

Here is a short description of the Bayh-Dole Act at a US university tech transfer office web site.   There are many things wrong with the four paragraphs here.  Consider: In 1980, the Bayh-Dole Act (PL 96-517, Patent and Trademark Act … Continue reading

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The (f)(2) agreement that your university must require you to sign

[Updated for the 2018 NIST regulatory revisions.] If you are working on a grant at a university, and the grant is from the US Government, and your university has accepted a standard patent rights clause in the form of 37 … Continue reading

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(f)(2), The Soul of Bayh-Dole

[Updated May 2018 to deal with the NIST screwballedness.] At the heart of the Bayh-Dole Act is the disposition of ownership in inventions made with federal funding at universities. That disposition is intended to provide benefits to the public through … Continue reading

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Freedom to Innovate in Washington State: Undoing the Embarrassing and Deceptive Muddle of UW and WSU Invention Policies

Here in the state of Washington, we are working to free faculty at public universities from state control of scholarship.  That’s the purpose of SB 5247, now in committee in the Washington state senate. Presently both the University of Washington … Continue reading

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The University as Bayh-Dole Privateer

Why would a nation-state seek to claim ownership of inventions made by its citizens?  That is, what uses would a nation-state put its patent system to, beyond those that one might expect of an individual inventor, entrepreneur, investor, company, university, … Continue reading

Posted in Bayh-Dole, Commons, Innovation, Metrics, Policy, Shanzhai | 1 Comment

Fixing the Flaw in Bayh-Dole with Freedom to Innovate Legislation

The essence of the Bayh-Dole Act is that government, though it supports faculty-led university research, should defer to investigators and inventors who wish to develop the inventions they make. Bayh-Dole does this by pre-approving a broad set of arrangements that … Continue reading

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15 arguments for the university innovation machine… and why they are wrong

University administrators are hot on the idea of compulsory institutional ownership of faculty “inventions.”  The idea of “invention” is itself the subject of expanding ideas of scope–not just patentable inventions, but pretty much anything that a university administrator thinks could … Continue reading

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Manitoba’s Bold New Licensing Practice

It’s only a news story, but it shows the continuing set of underlying assumptions about university involvement in innovation. These assumptions just won’t let go. There is a narrative frame around them that squeezes tight. Take a look at this … Continue reading

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