Category Archives: Technology Transfer

More Bayh-Dole Nonsense

Posted on February 13, 2014 by Gerald Barnett

In the “Innovation U 2.0” report, we find the now expectable misrepresentation of the Bayh-Dole Act: Following the passage of the Bayh-Dole legislation in 1980 every US university had the responsibility–and new opportunities–to work with faculty innovators in assessing the … Continue reading →

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Ouroboros Innovation Advocacy

Posted on February 13, 2014 by Gerald Barnett

SSTI just sent out a note about a new report by Louis G. Tornatzky and Elaine C. Redeout, “Innovation U 2.0 Reinventing University Roles in a Knowledge Economy.” After a brief read through it, I’m left puzzled. Perhaps this note … Continue reading →

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Be Advocates for the Doers

Posted on February 2, 2014 by Gerald Barnett

Universities prior to Bayh-Dole generally pushed invention management to external agents. These agents took on the expense, the complexity, the competitive issues, and the liability. These agents allowed universities to avoid direct conflicts of interest between managing the research environment … Continue reading →

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The secret student "investment" in technology transfer

Posted on February 2, 2014 by Gerald Barnett

About a month ago, I wrote a couple of essays on the Brookings report “University Start-ups: Critical for Improving Technology Transfer.” The Brookings report thinks that university administrators starting and investing in companies is a really keen idea, especially if … Continue reading →

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Incommensurate Innovation Mindsets

Posted on January 25, 2014 by Gerald Barnett

Alasdair McIntyre in After Virtue presents two contrasting arguments. Shortened up and re-cast slightly, they are: (a) Justice demands that every citizen should enjoy equal opportunity to develop his or her talents. But that requires equal access to health care … Continue reading →

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To be the lighthouse, not the reef

Posted on January 15, 2014 by Gerald Barnett

Judging from the tone of Chris Gallagher’s reporting on S. 1720 and S. 1310, the anti-troll bills working their way through the US Senate, university administrators are not paying much attention to the consequences. If these bills are combined and … Continue reading →

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Ten Reasons Why Deans and Provosts Should Support Freedom to Innovate

Posted on December 22, 2013 by Gerald Barnett

Freedom to innovate policies limit the manner in which universities and other non-profit organizations claim ownership of intellectual property developed in the research and instructional programs they host. These limitations, far from being adverse to institutional interests, promote a creative, … Continue reading →

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Misunderstandings of Bayh-Dole

Posted on December 14, 2013 by Gerald Barnett

Sean O’Connor has written a well documented and argued article regarding the history of the Bayh-Dole Act and what he argues is a flaw in government reasoning regarding assignment practices for inventions that arises from a report written in 1947 … Continue reading →

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Is more and more research spending the answer?

Posted on December 12, 2013 by Gerald Barnett

Battelle is out with a new study forecasting “Global R&D Funding” for 2014.  The report covers countries and various areas of research such as biotech and energy.  The findings are rather bland–the US will spend $465 billion next year on … Continue reading →

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It's *Not* Just a Tax, You Know

Posted on November 30, 2013 by Gerald Barnett

It’s Just a Tax I have always wondered where the dismissive argument that non-exclusive licenses are “just a tax” came from. The expression comes up a couple of times in Sally Smith Hughes’s interviews with Niels Reimers, who ran Stanford’s … Continue reading →

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