Accountability in patenting of federally funded research

Bayh-Dole allows academic grantees to patent federally-funded research for purposes of promoting the commercialization of this research. To ensure commercialization goals are achieved, the Act requires grantees to report to funding agencies not only the existence of federally-funded patents but also utilization efforts they and their licensees/assignees are making. Although reporting is a cornerstone of accountability under Bayh-Dole, information about grantee compliance with reporting requirements is incomplete and dated. In fact, the last significant study of the question dates back to the late 1990s and analyzes only 633 patents. Since that time, concerns have emerged that federally-funded university patents are being asserted improperly against independent commercializers or even assigned to so-called “patent trolls.” This article provides fresh evidence indicating substantial under-reporting of the existence of federal funding in over 30,000 academic biomedical patents issued between 1980 to 2007. The article finds substantial under-reporting of federal funding even in the case of patents on FDA-approved drugs, which should presumably receive significant attention from universities. Grantees’ failure to report federal funding suggests similar, or even more significant, noncompliance with requirements to report utilization information. However, compliance with reporting requirements on utilization cannot be assessed because of secrecy associated with relevant government databases. Accordingly, the article makes a fresh argument that the Commerce Department, which has the requisite regulatory authority, work with funding agencies, to improve transparency. Greater transparency would not only motivate grantees to improve reporting but would also allow assessment of whether grantee patent management is actually achieving Bayh-Dole\u27s utilization goals

Study the Effect of Machining Process Parameters on Die-Sinking EDM for Al5083/B4C Composite

615-619The study mostly emphasizes on selecting the best machining parameters among the conducted experiments and evaluating the optimal machining parameters for Al5083/10wt%B4C (boron carbide) composite in electro discharge machine (EDM). The paper is an integration of equally weighted experimental and computational study. In the experimental part of the study, specimen of Al5083/10wt%B4C is prepared by the popular ex-situ technique in an induction furnace through stir casting process.The experimental part includes design of experiment by Taguchi’s method, performing the experimentation for the different machining combinations and finally measuring of performance parameters The computational part of the study is the formulation of predictive model using soft computing techniques like response surface methodology (RSM), Taguchi and multi-variate regression analysis (MVA). The performance of the three techniques were scrutinised on a statistical platform and model formulated by RSM emerged as the best. The developed model is less than 5% error. The output values show that input process parameters has significant influenced on material removal rate and surface roughness

Necessity of Particle size studies of Ores from Bihar by the Mineral Industry

The measurment of particle size of various minerals, specially of the friable ores, which are commonly found in Bihar and the study of properties of material as function of size have applications in several fields. Recently, the subject has attracted the attention of industrial researchers. In this paper the necessity of particle size studies of ores of Bihar as applicable in general to the mining and mineral industries is discussed

Lane changing and merging maneuvers of car-like robots

This research paper designs a unique motion planner of multiple platoons of nonholonomic car-like robots as a feasible solution to the lane changing/merging maneuvers. The decentralized planner with a leaderless approach and a path-guidance principle derived from the Lyapunov-based control scheme generates collision free avoidance and safe merging maneuvers from multiple lanes to a single lane by deploying a split/merge strategy. The fixed obstacles are the markings and boundaries of the road lanes, while the moving obstacles are the robots themselves. Real and virtual road lane markings and the boundaries of road lanes are incorporated into a workspace to achieve the desired formation and configuration of the robots. Convergence of the robots to goal configurations and the repulsion of the robots from specified obstacles are achieved by suitable attractive and repulsive potential field functions, respectively. The results can be viewed as a significant contribution to the avoidance algorithm of the intelligent vehicle systems (IVS). Computer simulations highlight the effectiveness of the split/merge strategy and the acceleration-based controllers

A comparative study of a bio fuel cell with two different proton exchange membrane for the production of electricity from waste water

In the present study, electricity generation with waste water as substrate was investigated in a two compartment biofuel cell with two different combinations of electrodes and membrane. Two proton exchange membranes namely nafion and agar salt bridge and aluminum as electrode were used in the biofuel cell. It was found that biofuel cells operated with nafion produce maximum voltage 0.504 V with a current density of 0.1 A/m2 whereas in case of agar salt bridge maximum voltage of 0.145 V with a current density of 0.05 A/m2 was obtained. The more voltage produced in case of nafion is attributed to its low resistance for hydrogen ion transport