Monthly Archives: August 2010
With Facts Like This, Who Needs Reason?
Looking at this report by The Science Coalition. The “facts” about “the innovation process” are more than a little strange. I get the point of the report–more government funding for university research. Will need a Hmpf addendum to work through … Continue reading
Masks of Pluralism
Joan Roelofs’ Foundations and Public Policy: The Masks of Pluralism provides a critique of superficial consensus building. The basics are to capture passionate outliers, make them dependent for funding, and eventually lead them to conform to a consensus rallied around … Continue reading
Having Feck
“Feckless folk are aye fain o’ ane anither.” We see in this Scots proverb a classic condition of the bozonet. It’s a human condition, and I don’t begrudge the feckless their friends. But it does mean that majority rule in … Continue reading
What Happens Here is Excluded Here
I was in Mexico recently as part of a 5 week training program for new technology transfer professionals. Our piece of the training was negotiation and licensing. The participants had brought with them real world examples from their own institutions–opportunities … Continue reading
Research- [ of | on | with ]
There’s one more important area of research invention use, and that is as a research tool. In the practice, we can differentiate three kinds of tool activity, in addition to throwing bones into the air and heading for monoliths orbiting … Continue reading
Contexts
Have been looking at a new collection of essays edited by Leroy Searle, “The Natural History of Reading”. Searle makes a general claim: “we do not start, in reading, at the ‘beginning,’ but at a particular point in a history … Continue reading
The Iron Man
This is good stuff. Makes my point. There is room for some iron in the discussion, just not with the waiters, and it doesn’t have to come out until after hours.
Waiters Packing Heat
A basic question I ask university tech transfer officers is this: in a licensing situation for university IP, who is it who first needs a contract? I get a lot of interesting answers to this. But here’s the thing. It’s … Continue reading
Pathway Dependence
Let’s look at a licensing situation set up two different ways. The purpose is to illustrate pathway dependence of an offer. Let’s say we have an invention with an associated patent right and a university laboratory willing to engage industry … Continue reading
You Know You Are In Deep When…
Attorneys won’t help you figure things out without 1) a dispute and 2) getting paid. There’s a point at which the law becomes whatever someone wanting to get their way is willing to argue for. Until then, it is really … Continue reading