Category Archives: Social Science

The Casino Factor

Posted on April 5, 2016 by Gerald Barnett

We have been working through how a university might come to acquire patent rights from its faculty. I’ve discussed the problems in the dual monopoly system–comprehensive, compulsory assignment of a broad set of things labeled “inventions” combined with a strong … Continue reading →

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Principalities of Patenting

Posted on April 2, 2016 by Gerald Barnett

I am working through the ways in which a university comes to acquire patent rights from faculty inventors. This is turning into a series of articles. This stuff isn’t easy–but then, as far as I can tell, it’s not easy … Continue reading →

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The rise of “employee” as a means to pervert university IP policy

Posted on March 3, 2016 by Gerald Barnett

We live in a society dominated by the public stock corporation and the manner in which it engages work. It has only been since the late 19th century that the public stock corporation has come to have this role, though … Continue reading →

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When the pseudo-Bayh-Dole prophecy fails

Posted on January 1, 2016 by Gerald Barnett

In 1956, Leon Festinger and others published an account of a group in Chicago that believed that the world was about to be destroyed by a flood, but that those who took the appropriate actions would be rescued by a spaceship … Continue reading →

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Right More Often Than Wrong

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

John Gruber writes Daring Fireball, one of the best blogs on technology management, innovation, and business, generally from an Apple baseline.   I like how he selects from the news of the day, pulls a quote, and provides a quick … Continue reading →

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On Deliberately Weak IP Rhetorics

Posted on October 7, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

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 →

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Cleese on Creativity

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

In a talk on Creativity (from 1991, it seems), complete with Danish subtitling to help expand your language competency, John Cleese talks about “open” and “closed” modes of operating, and the need to move between these two modes to find … Continue reading →

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Competing Primitive Narratives of Technology Transfer

Posted on September 3, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

I have noticed recently how merely having a reasonable account for something doesn’t mean that one has got the one and only reasonable account. Todorov, that critical theorist that folks in tech transfer have never heard of, says that there’s … Continue reading →

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I know, build a compulsory control scheme!

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

Teresa M. Amabile, “How to Kill Creativity”: Creativity is undermined unintentionally every day in work environments that were established–for entirely good reasons–to maximize business imperatives such as coordination, productivity, and control. In Steven Johnson’s The Innovator’s Cookbook.  What do folks … Continue reading →

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WYSIATI

Posted on June 16, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman develops the idea of “what you see is all there is.” He makes the case that we use two rather different mental approaches, which he calls System 1 and System 2. System 1 … Continue reading →

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