Category Archives: Technology Transfer

The VPR Letters, No. 1

Posted on January 15, 2016 by Gerald Barnett

Dear Vice Provost for Research, An insightful vice provost for research once told me that the director of technology transfer had the second most difficult job in the university, after the dean of medicine. Having served as a director of a campus … 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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Voyage of the beagles

Posted on December 28, 2015 by Gerald Barnett

It’s not that I wanted to take a hiatus from posting ideas here at the Research Enterprise blog, but other writing tasks and various gusts of the life winds took me away from this forum. But I intend to be … Continue reading →

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We are sure you will adopt this discovery faster now that it comes with a patent and a bureaucrat!

Posted on August 26, 2015 by Gerald Barnett

In Farewell to Reason, Paul Feyerabend examines cultural variety and considers the problem of the “objective” claims of science in the broader context of whether any given society consistently benefits from scientific objectivism, given how often science is wrong, how … Continue reading →

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Transferwell

Posted on June 17, 2015 by Gerald Barnett

I followed a link from Kottke.org to an Atlantic Monthly article by Derek Thompson about how to choose a charity to support based on effectiveness of action rather than effectiveness of pitch or pride of place. The counter-example Thompson gives is … Continue reading →

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A New Angle on Protecting University Employee Inventors

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Gerald Barnett

Washington state senator Maralyn Chase has introduced legislation (SB 6106 and SB 6107) to free up inventors at the state’s public universities from administrative requirements to assign all their inventions to the state for management. In addition to seeking to make voluntary … Continue reading →

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Efficiency in University Technology Transfer

Posted on May 3, 2015 by Gerald Barnett

Over at the GAIN group on LinkedIn, Laura Schoppe has asked a good question about “decentralization” of university licensing efforts. She appears to advocate for the efficiency of central IP offices. Peter Schuerman from UC Merced has already provided a … Continue reading →

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Complexity that serves the intermediaries

Posted on March 12, 2015 by Gerald Barnett

In a recent article in Vanity Fair, Michael Lewis discusses the premise behind Flash Boys. Lewis argues that the stock market had become “complicated beyond belief.” Flash Boys chronicles the efforts of a group of traders to figure out what … Continue reading →

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Be True to the Mission, Not to the Apparatus

Posted on February 9, 2015 by Gerald Barnett

Col. John Boyd was, at one time, America’s best fighter pilot. He could out-maneuver any pilot flying, he could teach pilots to fly, and after earning an engineering degree from Georgia Tech, knew more about the dynamics of jet fighters … Continue reading →

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How we got here, in twelve chapters, 5

Posted on February 1, 2015 by Gerald Barnett

5. Further Implications of the Faux Bayh-Dole Act The rise of the faux Bayh-Dole Act led university administrators with low status suddenly to see a way to acquire substantial power, using a claim that federal law gave them a mandate to take … Continue reading →

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