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Category Archives: Policy
Falling revenues for the model that never was, but is
An article by Jens Krogstad in USA Today, reposted at Innovation Daily, has the headline “Universities struggle with falling invention royalties”. Well, no kidding. The big biotech window of investment was 1980-1995. Aging patents in university portfolios are expiring everywhere, … Continue reading
Posted in Freedom, History, Policy, Technology Transfer
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Three Innovation Propositions of the Moloch-State
As American public universities ramp up their claims to own faculty inventions, software, works of authorship, and even know-how, all in the name of profit-seeking from “commercialization”–by which they mean something along the lines of “making money when speculative monopolists … Continue reading
A bureaucrat’s thumb in every hopeful innovation pie
Advocates of the “faux” Bayh-Dole make the claim that the inspired part of the Act is that it gives ownership of faculty inventive work supported by federal funds to university bureaucrats for their fun and profit. I know, I’ve skipped … Continue reading
Posted in Agreements, Bayh-Dole, Policy, Present Assignment, Stanford v Roche
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Another Wild Assertion of Best Practice
Here is a passage from the “IP Handbook of Best Practices,” from an article about the development of University of California “technology transfer”, co-authored by a former director of the UC tech transfer office (emphasis added): In 1943, the first … Continue reading
Luck. Goodwill. Diligence.
I have a hypothesis, not made idly: University innovation comes about primarily as a combination of luck, goodwill, and diligence, typically in that order of importance. Most of the major university licensing transactions appear to have followed this pathway. Something … Continue reading
Posted in Freedom, Innovation, Policy
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The March-In That Ain’t
I came across an interesting commentary by John Conley on the NIH’s refusal to exercise march-in rights under Bayh-Dole. The post is from January 2011 and has to do with the problems Genzyme has had producing an enzyme that helps … Continue reading
Research Shanzhai
In the Teece formulation, innovation represents a competition among first movers, imitators, and infrastructure. Each aims for a share of the value of something new and worthwhile. Patents might be thought to aid the inventor, giving him or her a … Continue reading
Posted in Commons, Innovation, Policy, Shanzhai, Technology Transfer
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If Siri were free of rights, would there be a Siri?
Here is another article out today, from Peter Cohan, arguing that the US patent system should be scrapped. Are we are well past being able to reform it? Cohan’s five reasons don’t include regulatory capture, market inefficiencies, the march to … Continue reading
Posted in Freedom, Innovation, IP, Policy
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The Basic Premise of University Invention Management
Use = Success There’s really not much to add. Infringement is not an option.
Posted in IP, Policy, Technology Transfer
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On Deliberately Weak IP Rhetorics
I mentioned Boldrin and Levine’s argument against patents. Their paper (it is posted but labeled a draft) is very uneven, moving between dubious assertions and insightful analysis. Lurking over their discussion, though they do not acknowledge it, is Teece’s paper … Continue reading
Posted in Freedom, IP, Policy, Social Science
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