Category Archives: Technology Transfer

Adoption before productization

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

In Four Steps to the Epiphany, Steven Blank argues that technology startups need to find their “earlyvangelist” customers before their product is finished.  Earlyvangelists are people who have a problem, know they have the problem, and have taken steps to … 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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Innovating in the infrastructure

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

Here is an interesting take on innovation.  Bill Frezza argues that the STEM infrastructure is not itself practicing uniformly the best STEM.  For biotech, Frezza argues there’s still room for innovation by upgrading to the tech that’s current in other … Continue reading →

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Voice + Choice

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

Does a national research innovation system benefit from the mass conversion of generally open and diverse environments of university scholarship to institutionalized management behind a paywall?  That’s what is happening in America right now.  Efforts have only intensified after Stanford … Continue reading →

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A case for freedom

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

Let’s talk about “free agency”.   Institutions hate it, players love it.  Fans, they are not sure.  When it comes to university innovation, however, we need to work through a number of issues.  Let’s start with a few considerations. Universities have … 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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AUTM, the clueless inventor-loathing organization

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

. . . AUTM, of course, is already opposed, using their usual argument that everyone else is a stupid idiot and only AUTM has the intellectual capacity to navigate such “incredibly complex and nuanced matter.” {/vent} AUTM is the organization, … Continue reading →

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Berlin contracts and Bayh-Dole

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

Germany has produced its own version of template agreements for research between universities and industry, called the “Berlin contracts.” There is even an English translation that makes for interesting reading. German law is also interesting because in addition to patent … Continue reading →

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Invention use or patent use, which will it be?

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

A while back I looked at the Lambert agreements.  These are model agreements developed in the UK that aim to normalize research arrangements between universities and companies.   My review of them argued that they were a bit sloppy and inconsistent, … Continue reading →

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IP Governance or IP Management?

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

After Bayh-Dole was passed, university administrators got the idea that universities had to have policy statements to claim ownership of inventions to comply with Bayh-Dole.  The idea was that “elect to retain title” meant “elect title” which meant “title vests … Continue reading →

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