Digital Commons Network^™

A Critical Librarianship Approach For Teaching Patent Searching: Who Becomes An Inventor In America?, Dave Zwicky, Ilana Stonebraker

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The ways in which a technology is invented, owned, and approved are strongly influenced by the same oppressive and exclusionary structures that critical librarianship interrogates. Patents, limited-term grants of rights to inventions, are issued to inventors in exchange for detailed specifications of the invention. This paper examines current practices used by business librarians in teaching students how to find patents and how these practices could be critically informed given the nature of the United States patent system as it exists today. An output of this work is a suggested lesson plan with recommended resources.

“That Means Nothing To Me As A Normal Person Who Doesn't Know About Patents”: Usability Testing Of Google Patents And Patent Public Search With Undergraduate Engineering Students, Graham Sherriff, Molly Rogers

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Patent searching is an important research tool for undergraduate engineering students, yet it requires special topic knowledge to conduct successfully. Patent database websites have the ability to alleviate or add to the complexity of patent searching, depending on their usability. Prompted by the launch of the US Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Public Search (PPS) website in early 2022, the authors investigated the usability of PPS and Google Patents. The study's objective was to gain insights into the ways in which the websites of commonly-used patent databases support undergraduate students’ patent searching activities. The study examined students’ performance of typical …

Identifying Knowledge Spillovers From Universities: Quasi-Experimental Evidence From Urban China, Li Jing, Shimeng Liu, Yifan Wu

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper studies the impact of universities on local innovation activity by exploiting a unique university expansion policy in China as a quasi-experiment. We take a geographic approach, empowered by geocoded data on patents and new products at the address level, to identify knowledge spillovers as an important channel. We obtain three main findings. First, university expansion significantly increases universities’ own innovation capacity, which results in a dramatic boom of local industry patents. Second, the impact of university expansion on local innovation activities attenuates sharply within 2 kilometers of the universities. Third, university expansion boosts nearby firms’ new products and …

Science And Engineering State Indicators: Mountain West States, Olivia K. Cheche, Kristian Thymianos, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Higher Education

This fact sheet examines the Science & Engineering State Indicators database from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.

Prior Art Research In The Capstone Design Experience: A Case Study Of Redesigned Online And In-Person Instruction, Graham Sherriff, Dustin Rand

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Exploration of “prior art”—the state of a technology’s development, as manifested in literature, documentation, and artifacts—has many benefits for engineering students. It expands their understanding of the design problem, reveals a range of possible solutions, and develops research skills important to professional practice. While prior art often includes patents and research literature, it can include any type of publication or document. This paper presents an innovative approach to a prior art review assignment in the capstone course for mechanical, electrical, and biomedical engineering students at the University of Vermont (UVM). The assignment and accompanying instruction were redesigned in 2018–2019 to …

Color Of Creatorship - Author's Response, Anjali Vats

Articles

This essay is the author's response to three reviews of The Color of Creatorship written by notable intellectual property scholars and published in the IP Law Book Review.

Analysis Of Global Published Literature On Library And Information Science: An Empirical Study Through Big Data Approach (1920-2020), Subhajit Panda, Dr. Atasi Sinhababu, Prof. Rupak Chakravarty

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent of LIS (Library and Information Science) literature referring to and being referred by patents in the form of scholarly citations they attribute and/or receive. The analysis of the present study was done based on a total data-set of 237820 research publications of the LIS discipline ranging from April 1920 to April 2020 (100 years) as mined from the LENS database. LIS research corpus received 22.75 scholarly citations and 6.87 patent citations per paper while utilizing and citing 18667 patents and thus establishing the correlation between the citing-cited link in the …

Arbitration By Ssos As A Preferred Solution For Solving The Frand Licensing Of Seps?, Kung-Chung Liu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In the last decade, the licensing of standard essential patents (SEPs) on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms has been a thorny issue for SEP holders in the US and Europe on the one hand, and major SEP implementers in major Asian economies on the other, such as Japan, Korea, the PRC, Taiwan and even India. With the rise of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, driven by the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, driverless vehicles, and artificial intelligence (AI), which relies even more on interconnectivity, more and more new standards and SEPs will emerge, and the issue of FRAND licensing of …

Using Peer Observation To Branch Into Stem Curricula Through Patent Education, Rebecca "Missy" Murphey, Rachel Edford, Sandy Avila, Buenaventura (Ven) Basco

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This presentation was recorded for the hybrid 2021 Florida Library Association Annual Conference that was held in Daytona Beach, FL on May 19-20, 2021. Access to the video recording is listed below.

Presentation Description:

Through an interdisciplinary entrepreneurial program, academic librarians observed gaps pertaining to a lack of patent knowledge among students and faculty. As an example of libraries leading forward, a group of UCF subject librarians sought to address this issue by discussing how the library can help to integrate patent awareness into a broader STEM library instruction program. Our newly developed peer observation group provided the perfect opportunity …

An Analysis Of The Patents Granted To The University Of Arkansas, Fayetteville, 2010-2019, Lutishoor Salisbury, Jeremy S. Smith, Tian Yang

University Libraries Faculty Publications and Presentations

This report provides an analysis of the patents were granted for ten years (2010-2019) where at least one of the inventors is affiliated with a department or college from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. It identifies the number of patents with inventors from the various departments; the number of unique inventors in each department; and the college affiliations of the inventors; their inter- and extra-collegiate collaborators from campus and their off-campus campus collaborators.

Traditional Knowledge Digital Library: A Magic Bullet In The War Against Biopiracy, Dattatraya Trayambak Kalbande, Priya Suradkar

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Traditional Knowledge is not something new or innovative but the distillation of practices or knowledge in the society. India has experienced various initiatives regarding the protection of traditional knowledge under intellectual property rights, including the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, which is a major step to curb biopiracy and in many of these cases the country had to fight for revocation of the granted patents which involved huge costs and time. India has taken misappropriations of its traditional knowledge by developed countries through patenting system. This paper discusses various aspects of Traditional Knowledge Digital Library of India including its role in …

Co-Curricular Innovation: Teaching About Patents As Primary Sources, Bridget Garnai, Heidi Gauder

Roesch Library Faculty Publications

With the rich history of airplane and automotive invention in Dayton, Ohio, and the value of patents as primary sources in mind, librarians Bridget Garnai and Heidi Gauder designed and led two interactive, co-curricular workshops at University of Dayton’s (UD) Roesch Library in Fall 2019 and Spring 2020. Their goals were to introduce students to patents as primary sources that influence daily life and expand students’ ideas of what kinds of research can be supported by patents as primary sources. To that end, Garnai and Gauder created two workshops centered around patents as primary sources, “Patent Pending: Innovation in Society” …

The “Dulled” & Disappearing Gem City: An Attempt To Restore The Social And Economic Forces Of Dayton, Ohio While Incorporating Ecological Principles, Hailey Lane

Student Papers in Local and Global Regional Economies

In 1903, Dayton garnered the greatest number of patents per capita relative to any other U.S. city. It was the epicenter for the creation of the cash register, powered flight, catalytic convertor in automobiles, parking meter, stepladder, and electric wheelchair. Dayton’s history is comprised of the dual forces of innovation and invention. While innovation is not a foreign concept to the Dayton community, it’s Silicon Valley-esque status has since dissipated and patent numbers are subsequently falling. The Great Recession reduced manufacturing in Dayton through subsequent closures in factories; this oriented Dayton towards being a more service-oriented city. (Millsap, 2017, p. …

Engaging First Year Students With Intellectual Property, Marian G. Armour-Gemmen

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Since intellectual property is so important to engineers, creating enthusiasm from the beginning of their engineering studies is imperative. Since first year students have not learned how to apply technological concepts to real life, demonstrating intellectual property could be a challenge. To engage first year engineering students in the concept and the value of intellectual property, students were introduced to basic concepts and applications. Different concepts were applied to real life examples allowing them to interface with technology from an intellectual property perspective. This paper highlights not only patents, but also trademarks and trade secrets.

Justice Department's New Position On Patents, Standard Setting, And Injunctions, Herbert J. Hovenkamp

All Faculty Scholarship

A deep split in American innovation policy has arisen between new economy and old economy innovation. In a recent policy statement, the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department takes a position that tilts more toward the old economy. Its December, 2019, policy statement on remedies for Standard Essential Patents issued jointly with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the National Institute of Standards and Technology reflects this movement.

The policy statement as a whole contains two noteworthy problems: one is a glaring omission, and the other is a mischaracterization of the scope of antitrust liability. Both positions are strongly …

Is Imperialism Passé In The 21st Century?, Rohit Azad, Shouvik Chakraborty

PERI Working Papers

Hardt and Negri in Empire argue that ”Imperialism is over.” On the contrary, others argue that not only is imperialism not dead, but its machinations have amplified during the phase of globalisation (Patnaik’s The Value of Money, Patnaik and Patnaik’s A Theory of Imperialism, John Smith’s Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century, among others). The reason for this sharp division among progressives is because of the current world scenario. On the one hand, some countries in the periphery (emerging economies) are growing faster than those in the core. On the other hand, the terms of trade has started moving in favour …

Mapping Misinformation In The Coronavirus Outbreak, Ana Santos Rutschman

All Faculty Scholarship

The coronavirus outbreak has sent ripples of fear and confusion across the world. These sentiments—and our collective responses to the outbreak—are made worse by rampant misinformation surrounding the new strain of the virus, COVID-2019. In this post, I survey some of the most pervasive areas of tentacular coronavirus-related misinformation that has proliferated online -- as well as the responses of social media companies like YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest and TikTok that may ultimately prove inadequate given the magnitude of the problem.

Inventor Mobility, Human Capital, And The Propensity To Patent, David Youngberg, Joshua Hall

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Using 1975-1992 patent data this article untangles two opposing effects of knowledge spillovers: increasing productivity of invention (encouraging higher-quality patents) and increasing trade secret leakage to competitors (encouraging lower-quality patents). Using geographic labor mobility to predict the former and industry labor mobility in the latter, we find that doubling the rate of industry level labor mobility of scientists and engineers decreases patent quality. Results from doubling the rate of regional level mobility are mixed, but suggest an increase in patent quality.

Open Knowledge Commons Versus Privatized Gain In A Fractured Information Ecology: Lessons From Covid-19 For The Future Of Sustainability, Martin Hensher, Katie Kish, Joshua Farley, Stephen Quilley, Katharine Zywert

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

COVID-19 has shone a bright light on a number of failings and weaknesses in how current economic models handle information and knowledge. Some of these are familiar issues that have long been understood but not acted upon effectively – for example, the danger that current systems of intellectual property and patent protection are actually inimical to delivering a cost-effective vaccine available to all, whereas treating knowledge as a commons and a public good is much more likely to deliver efficient outcomes for the entire global population. But COVID-19 has also demonstrated that traditional models of knowledge production and dissemination are …

Frand And Antitrust, Herbert J. Hovenkamp

All Faculty Scholarship

This paper considers when a patentee’s violation of a FRAND commitment also violates the antitrust laws. It warns against two extremes. First, is thinking that any violation of a FRAND obligation is an antitrust violation as well. FRAND obligations are contractual, and most breaches of contract do not violate antitrust law. The other extreme is thinking that, because a FRAND violation is a breach of contract, it cannot also be an antitrust violation.

Every antitrust case must consider the market environment in which conduct is to be evaluated. SSOs operated by multiple firms are joint ventures. Antitrust’s role is to …

Can Mergers And Acquisitions Internalize Positive Externalities In Funding Innovation?, Leo Li, Mark Liu

Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise Working Papers

Fundamental innovation usually involves huge upfront costs, but the benefits are spread across various sectors of the economy. Given the large costs and limited appropriability of the benefits associated with the innovation, individual firms underinvest in these innovations relative to the socially optimal level. We find that mergers and acquisitions (M&As) can internalize the positive externalities by merging firms from both the user industries and the producer industries of an innovation. Using the US patent citation dataset, we define the user and producer relationship between each pair of industries and between each pair of industry and technological class. We then …

Patents & Information Literacy, Dave Zwicky

Libraries Faculty and Staff Supplemental Materials

The ACRL Framework is an attempt to define information literacy using six threshold concepts. Patents could be a vehicle for addressing those concepts with STEM audiences.

Thoughts On Patents And Information Literacy, Dave Zwicky

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Patents are an under-used information source, in part because of an often-narrow focus by patent librarians on the tools and techniques of patentability searching. This approach can ignore a range of potential applications of patent information, using patents in their contexts as technical, design, historical, legal, and commercial documents. This paper suggests the adoption of a flexible approach, viewing patents and patent information in the greater context of information literacy, including that of the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, more commonly known as the ACRL Framework.

Rp-4.4.2 Patent And Technology Transfer Policy [University Of Nebraska Board Of Regents Policies], University Of Nebraska Board Of Regents

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

This Patent and Technology Transfer Policy is adopted for the purpose of providing general policy regulations to implement Section 3.10 of the University of Nebraska Bylaws of the Board of Regents.

Intellectual Property And Competition, Herbert J. Hovenkamp

All Faculty Scholarship

A legal system that relies on private property rights to promote economic development must consider that profits can come from two different sources. First, both competition under constant technology and innovation promote economic growth by granting many of the returns to the successful developer. Competition and innovation both increase output, whether measured by quantity or quality. Second, however, profits can come from practices that reduce output, in some cases by reducing quantity, or in others by reducing innovation.

IP rights and competition policy were traditionally regarded as in conflict. IP rights create monopoly, which was thought to be inimical to …

Inspiring Innovation With Patent Information Literacy In The Engineering Technology Curriculum, Dave Zwicky, Margaret Phillips

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Patents have wide appeal to students, faculty, and employers and can be a potent tool for integrating information literacy (IL) into engineering and technology curricula. There is evidence to show that students use patents to assess the patentability of their design ideas, explore the state of the art in a given area of technology, and to inspire creativity in their work. Faculty use patents and other complementary forms of gray literature to go beyond the traditional IL world of scholarly literature and engage students with information problems that reflect real-world design challenges. Working with patents allows students to develop strategic, …

Regulation And The Marginalist Revolution, Herbert J. Hovenkamp

All Faculty Scholarship

The marginalist revolution in economics became the foundation for the modern regulatory State with its “mixed” economy. Marginalism, whose development defines the boundary between classical political economy and neoclassical economics, completely overturned economists’ theory of value. It developed in the late nineteenth century in England, the Continent and the United States. For the classical political economists, value was a function of past averages. One good example is the wage-fund theory, which saw the optimal rate of wages as a function of the firm’s ability to save from previous profits. Another is the theory of corporate finance, which assessed a corporation’s …

Evaluating Disparities In The U.S. Technology Transfer Ecosystem To Improve Bench To Business Translation, James Weis, Ashvin Bashyam, Gregory J. Ekchian, Kathryn Paisner, Nathan L. Vanderford

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

Background: A large number of highly impactful technologies originated from academic research, and the transfer of inventions from academic institutions to private industry is a major driver of economic growth, and a catalyst for further discovery. However, there are significant inefficiencies in academic technology transfer. In this work, we conducted a data-driven assessment of translational activity across United States (U.S.) institutions to better understand how effective universities are in facilitating the transfer of new technologies into the marketplace. From this analysis, we provide recommendations to guide technology transfer policy making at both the university and national level.

Methods: Using data …

Propensity To Patent And Firm Size For Small R&D-Intensive Firms, Albert N. Link, John T. Scott

Dartmouth Scholarship

The Schumpeterian hypothesis about the effect of firm size on research and development (R&D) output is studied for a sample of R&D projects for R&D-intensive firms that are small but have substantial variance in their sizes. Across the distribution of firm sizes, the elasticity of patenting with respect to R&D ranged from 0.41 to 0.55, with the elasticities being largest for intermediate levels of firm size and also varying directly with the extent to which the projects are Schumpeterian in the cost or value senses. The paper’s findings at the R&D project level are compared with the literature’s findings at …

Information Literacy In Engineering Technology Education: A Case Study, Margaret Phillips, Dave Zwicky

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Information literacy is a vital component of engineering and engineering technology programs, as evidenced by its alignment with the engineering design process, and as required by ABET, the body that accredits all engineering and many engineering technology undergraduate programs. However, information literacy in engineering technology and applied engineering curricula is understudied when compared with information literacy in engineering programs. This paper describes a case study of information literacy integration into an undergraduate mechanical engineering technology design course, with a focus on patent information and patent searching. Online pre- and post-assessment data for four semesters were analyzed, showing improvements in student …