Kludge
09-15-2011, 12:56 AM
"The state of universities and intellectual property is pretty messy these days. Thanks to the screwed up Bayh-Dole (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100901/16073410866.shtml) law, many universities feel (wrongly) compelled to patent the research that they produce. This generally goes against their basic charters of sharing the knowledge that they create. It's also not very profitable. Only a small handful of universities have been able to make money off of patents. Most have lost a ton of money, setting up expensive tech transfer offices that don't return a dime.
However, in an interesting twist (pointed out by Glyn Moody (https://twitter.com/#!/glynmoody/statuses/113541301370232832)), it appears that a variety of big tech companies, including Intel, HP and IBM, are now funding research centers on the condition that they open source anything that comes out of them (http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2011/09/12/intel-to-universities-no-patents-please-just-open-source/)."
Think about that. Private industry is funding research benefiting everyone. As it happens, only 3% of corporate-sponsored research ends up patented. That means almost all corporate R&D through universities ends up in the public domain, for everyone to benefit from. We don't need government to fund research, because industry has the decency and confidence to believe they have a duty to share information and will still benefit from the research. You can bet IBM isn't funding research seeing whether or not polar bears injected with Flavor-aid will still have a 13% chance of having an erection between 6p-6:15p, too.
Summary from http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110913/03255415926/big-tech-companies-funding-university-research-labs-only-if-they-promise-to-open-source-results.shtml
(http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110913/03255415926/big-tech-companies-funding-university-research-labs-only-if-they-promise-to-open-source-results.shtml)Much more detailed write-up @ http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2011/09/12/intel-to-universities-no-patents-please-just-open-source/
However, in an interesting twist (pointed out by Glyn Moody (https://twitter.com/#!/glynmoody/statuses/113541301370232832)), it appears that a variety of big tech companies, including Intel, HP and IBM, are now funding research centers on the condition that they open source anything that comes out of them (http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2011/09/12/intel-to-universities-no-patents-please-just-open-source/)."
Think about that. Private industry is funding research benefiting everyone. As it happens, only 3% of corporate-sponsored research ends up patented. That means almost all corporate R&D through universities ends up in the public domain, for everyone to benefit from. We don't need government to fund research, because industry has the decency and confidence to believe they have a duty to share information and will still benefit from the research. You can bet IBM isn't funding research seeing whether or not polar bears injected with Flavor-aid will still have a 13% chance of having an erection between 6p-6:15p, too.
Summary from http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110913/03255415926/big-tech-companies-funding-university-research-labs-only-if-they-promise-to-open-source-results.shtml
(http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110913/03255415926/big-tech-companies-funding-university-research-labs-only-if-they-promise-to-open-source-results.shtml)Much more detailed write-up @ http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2011/09/12/intel-to-universities-no-patents-please-just-open-source/