Category Archives: Present Assignment

How (f)(2) saves Bayh-Dole, the "worst bill I've seen in my life"

At the end of the majority decision in Stanford v Roche, the Supreme Court pauses to chide the universities that have come whining to it for federal power to strip inventors of their rights, all for, apparently, administrative convenience: Though … Continue reading

Posted in Bayh-Dole, Freedom, Present Assignment, Stanford v Roche, Technology Transfer | Comments Off on How (f)(2) saves Bayh-Dole, the "worst bill I've seen in my life"

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

Posted in Agreements, Bayh-Dole, Policy, Present Assignment, Sponsored Research | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on The (f)(2) agreement that your university must require you to sign

(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

Posted in Bayh-Dole, Policy, Present Assignment | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on (f)(2), The Soul of Bayh-Dole

Finding the True Intent

I have been mulling over this sequence of statements from the court in the case of Shaw v. The Regents of the University of California: The true intent of a contracting party is irrelevant if it remains unexpressed. When a … Continue reading

Posted in Bayh-Dole, Policy, Present Assignment | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Finding the True Intent

Maybe Some University Patent Policies Are So Bad They Are Simply Void

The University of Washington and University of California patent policies are rather strange.  Both have been interpreted by the university administrations as requiring assignment of any and all inventions faculty make, whether in their labs, offices, showers, on sabbatical, or … Continue reading

Posted in Freedom, Policy, Present Assignment | Comments Off on Maybe Some University Patent Policies Are So Bad They Are Simply Void

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

Posted in Bayh-Dole, Freedom, IP, Policy, Present Assignment | 1 Comment

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 | Comments Off on A bureaucrat’s thumb in every hopeful innovation pie

The Most Wonderful Thing in the World

Here is a collection of clips from ten US research university IP policies.  The focus is on claims of ownership, not considering any of a number of other matters, such as royalty sharing schedules or the conditions on  which property … Continue reading

Posted in Policy, Present Assignment | 1 Comment

We could use better guidance on Bayh-Dole

I like how Eric Guttag goes after legal ideas.  I appreciate the way he digs into things, and his willingness to acknowledge when he needs to change his point of view.  Some time ago, he posted an excellent discussion of … Continue reading

Posted in Bayh-Dole, Present Assignment, Stanford v Roche | Comments Off on We could use better guidance on Bayh-Dole

The BioBrick BPA and Group Dynamics

The BioBricks Foundation supports a repository of “parts” for use in synthetic biology. It has implemented an interesting two-part arrangement called the BioBrick Public Agreement or BPA. This agreement aims to manage the interests of contributors and users of the … Continue reading

Posted in Agreements, Commons, Policy, Present Assignment, Technology Transfer | Tagged , , | Comments Off on The BioBrick BPA and Group Dynamics