Tag Archives: patents

End the disaster of university patenting for exclusive licensing

While there is a place for exclusive patent licensing (but why not just assign?), the university screws over its public mission by involving itself in exclusive deals. Just because those deals aren’t obvious to the public unless they make big … Continue reading

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More on Feynman’s Patents

Back in 2013, I wrote a stubby post to create a link to audio of an interview with physicist Richard P. Feynman, in which he describes how he came to be named as inventor on U.S. patents. Since that post … Continue reading

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10 Ways Universities Deal in Patents

I have been thinking about how university technology transfer is depicted, versus how it actually happens. The depictions are something of a prophetic hope–inventions reported to the university’s licensing office will be evaluated for “commercial potential” and those that look … Continue reading

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Outline of the federal framework for the disposition of inventions

Here is an outline of the federal framework for inventions. I have included links to various documents. Lots more to be said, and the brief account here is more gist than deep summary, but perhaps you find it helpful. Plenty … Continue reading

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Harbridge House on university exclusive licensing, 1

The Harbridge House report on government patent policy in 1968 laid the foundation for Bayh-Dole. Or, rather, federal officials selectively used portions of the report to change federal policy to conform to the wishes of patent development firms affiliated with … Continue reading

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How can a startup protect their intellectual property without filing for a patent? 

I was asked to respond to another Quora question— How can a startup protect their intellectual property without filing for a patent? Tim Berry provides a really excellent answer at Quora. But I thought it would be worth it to … Continue reading

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A sense of proportion–1

“If life is going to exist in a universe this size, the one thing it cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion.” —Douglas Adams, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy In the Bayh-Dole era–1981 to the present–the US Patent … Continue reading

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A century of reaping enormous profits at the expense of sickness and misfortune, 2

Mayo’s research publication Discovery’s Edge recently ran an article on “The Power of Patents.” In the article, Mayo Clinic wonders about patent royalties from a famous past invention: When Mayo Clinic colleagues Edward Kendall, Ph.D., and Philip Hench, M.D., along with … Continue reading

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Hormones and Patents

Graham Dutfield at the University of Leeds has published an article on the development of medical hormone products and patent law, “Patent on Steroids: What Hormones Tell Us about the Evolution of Patent Law.” The article doesn’t do as much … Continue reading

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NIST’s “substantially fueled” premise for unleashing innovation

Here is a claim from the opening of a recent NIST report–1234–on “Unleashing American Innovation,” a “draft green paper”: The U.S. innovation system is substantially fueled by the discoveries and inventions arising from federally funded R&D at the Nation’s universities, … Continue reading

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