Following a pause, with a relatively flat rate, from 1998 to 2008, the long-term trend of university patenting rising as a share of all patenting has resumed, driven by the internationalization of academic entrepreneurship and the persistence of US university technology transfer. The authors disaggregate this recent growth in university patenting…

This article considers the effects of the Leahy--Smith America Invents Act, signed into law in September 2011, on the US patent system and its potential negative implications for US patent activities and patent culture. (Contains 2 notes.)

In the early 1960s, Clark Kerr, the famed American educationalist and architect of the California public higher education system, took up the task of describing the emergent model of the contemporary American university. Multiversities, as he called them, were the large powerful American universities that packaged the provision of undergraduate,…

Intellectual property has become a highly coveted asset that can potentially reap a financial windfall for the owner who exploits its utility. Higher education has focused on the discovery of new knowledge, which can translate into intellectual property, but legislation, higher education policy, and/or contractual engagement may dictate ownership…

Thirty years ago federal policy underwent a major change through the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, which fostered greater uniformity in the way research agencies treat inventions arising from the work they sponsor. Before the Act, if government agencies funded university research, the funding agency retained ownership of the knowledge and technologies…

Extant evaluation studies of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 have focused primarily on its effects on the pace of innovation and on the norms and practices of academic research but neglected other public values. Seeking to redress this shortcoming, I begin by examining Bayh-Dole with respect to other relevant public values following the "Public Value…

In the past several years various published papers have questioned whether the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 (The University and Small Business Patent Procedures Act) has in reality been a determining factor in promoting the transfer of technology from US universities, as has been credited to it. This paper responds to that criticism, presenting facts and…

In some US states, policy makers, pressed by local and regional industrial interests, are debating how to "reform" technology transfer at public universities. "Reform" in this context is generally understood to mean redirecting university technology transfer activities to increase the benefits of state-funded research to local industries.…

This article catalogues and discusses challenges to the Bayh-Dole Act from a perspective broader than the legal, industrial or academic. Because the act is a Congressional enactment placed in the federal patent law and the author served for many years as Chief Counsel of the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Intellectual Property and…

It is proposed that the patent law be revised to imitate the copyright law with regard to definition of subject matter for patent. This would accommodate new classes of subject matter not foreseen at the time of the law's passage, such as microorganisms. Available at 1303 San Jacinto, Houston, TX 77002; $5.83. (MSE)

The Bayh-Dole Act has been remarkably successful in promoting the transfer of technology in the USA from federally funded research labs to the private sector. Although other governments are now looking to Bayh-Dole as a model, most of this interest has been limited to developed countries. This article examines the potential benefits of the…

Examined are elements that complicate the relationship between tort law and intellectual property licensing (patents): governmental regulation of products, legal standards, the evolution of tort doctrine, international law and practice, trademark, technology and patent licensing. Available from P.O. Box 2600, Arlington, VA 22202. (MSE)

The recent increased awareness of the importance to our economy of innovation and the development of new technologies has been coupled with the crafting of new legislation to increase the level of intellectual property protection available to innovators. Because one of the key methods of encouraging the efficient use of intellectual property is…

Statements and testimony from four major and eight additional witnesses comprise these 1981 hearings. David Ladd, Register of Copyrights and Associate Librarian for Copyright Services, reports on the functions and administrative operations of the Copyright Office since the new copyright law came into effect in 1978. The functions of the Patents…

Over the past 20 years, the number of patents assigned to universities has increased dramatically. This increase coincided with several policy initiatives, such as the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, designed to foster technology transfer between universities and the private sector. This paper examines the effect of such policies using an institutional…