Category Archives: Technology Transfer

Penn State’s Protection Racket, 22: Agency

Posted on August 29, 2017 by Gerald Barnett

For all the talk about conflict of  interest in Penn State policies, Penn State does have a policy, HR91, that directly addresses conflict of interest. It’s odd that administrators can’t seem to focus their conflict of interest worries there and … Continue reading →

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Penn State’s Protection Racket, 19: Conflict of Commitment

Posted on August 24, 2017 by Gerald Barnett

Even with this critique we have not got to the bottom of Penn State’s policy treatment of conflict of interest/commitment as a covert IP policy. Conflicts of interest and/or commitment “exist” when someone has “preferential access” to knowledge or university … Continue reading →

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Penn State’s Protection Racket, 18: University Interests

Posted on August 23, 2017 by Gerald Barnett

Penn State’s policy on entrepreneurial activities opens with this claim: Technology transfer must be effected within the framework of an individual’s obligations to the University. Given what we have learned about Penn State’s policies on academic freedom, we might revise … Continue reading →

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Penn State’s Protection Racket, 16: Entrepreneurial Activity

Posted on August 21, 2017 by Gerald Barnett

We worked through Penn State IP policies past (1940, 1991) and current, looked as well at the weirdness that is the IP Agreement (from 1992 and current), and discovered that for all that apparatus–poorly conceived and drafted–the only formal requirements … Continue reading →

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Bayh-Dole Bombast in Penn State’s 2001 Report on Technology Transfer

Posted on July 18, 2017 by Gerald Barnett

In 2001, Eva Pell, Penn State’s Vice President for Research prepared a report for the Trustees on “technology transfer.” In the discussion about why universities should be involved in technology transfer, Pell includes the following account of Bayh-Dole: Until 1980, … Continue reading →

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“Protecting” university inventions

Posted on July 9, 2017 by Gerald Barnett

I answered a question on Quora a bit ago: How can I protect my invention after applying for a patent? In the context of the question, my answer has to do with what an individual might do to “protect” an invention. … Continue reading →

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The Special Case Keeps Giving

Posted on July 8, 2017 by Gerald Barnett

Here is the special case university research invention. I have expanded it to show the logic. A special case invention is one that cannot be used without “development” and the “development” involves substantial effort at private expense and the “development” … Continue reading →

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AAU Fools with Words, 3

Posted on July 4, 2017 by Gerald Barnett

We are working through the AAU fantasy about invention commercialization. In AAU usage,  to “develop” an invention may mean to “suppress” the invention but also may include to design around an invention–as in, invent what is actually needed to create … Continue reading →

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AAU Fools with Words, 2

Posted on July 3, 2017 by Gerald Barnett

Let’s look then at the AAU statement produced by the task force charged with–if we read the preamble correctly–finding better words to declare that university technology transfer operations are to advance the public interest. AAU starts with fake history: Before … Continue reading →

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AAU Fools with Words, 1

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Gerald Barnett

Recently the Association of American Universities published a fakographic about Bayh-Dole. From the AAU perspective, of course, it was all true stuff, because, well, they believe whatever they are doing is right, so whatever they say about something that’s right … Continue reading →

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