PATENTING PUBLIC-FUNDED RESEARCH FOR TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER : A Conceptual-Empirical Synthesis of US Evidence and Lessons for India

The question of protecting intellectual property rights by academic inventors was never seriously contemplated until the introduction of the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980 in the US. The Act allowed universities to retain patent rights over inventions arising out of federally-funded research and to license those patents exclusively or nonexclusively at their discretion. This particular legislation was a response to the growing concern over the fact that federally funded inventions in the US were not reaching the market place. In this paper, we present a critical review of the US experience after the Bayh-Dole Act and argue that the evidence is far from being unambiguous. We discuss the debate surrounding the Act the extent to which it was successful in achieving its objectives, the unintended consequences, if any, and more generally, the effectiveness of IPR as a vehicle of technology transfer from universities. We also discuss the limited evidence on Bayh-Dole type legislations introduced in other countries. A new legislation, along the lines of the US Bayh-Dole Act The Protection and Utilisation of Public Funded IP Bill, 2008 is presently before the Indian parliament. The paper presents an Indian perspective against the backdrop of the US experience in an attempt to draw concrete lessons for India.Bayh-Dole Act, public-funded research, universities, Patents, India

Drivers of Academic Research and Patenting in India: Econometric Estimation of the Research Production Function

In this paper we attempt to provide a comprehensive understanding of the drivers ofacademic research and patenting in India. Academic research is conceptualised as aresearch production process where research inputs (like research time and number ofresearch scholars) are transformed into research outputs in the form of publicationsand patents. We expect research inputs by a faculty member to be an outcome ofhis/her own decision-making process, which in turn determine his/her researchoutputs. Exogenous parameters, like faculty background, faculty attitude, researchsponsorship and institutional factors, are expected to influence both set of endogenousvariables (research inputs and outputs). We specify this production function as arecursive simultaneous equation model and estimate the structural parameters usingstandard econometric methods. Our results clearly identify several drivers ofacademic research and patenting in India, in terms of faculty background, facultyattitude and other parameters, from which we arrive at concrete policy lessons forpatenting of academic research in India. In particular, we argue that putting in placeinstitutional structures will not serve the purpose without addressing the fundamentalissues of research environment, culture and attitude in the first place. In a sense,therefore, introducing an IPR legislation alone may not act as an instant magicformula to energise Indian academic research for commercial application.Academic Research, Patents, Bayh-Dole Act, India

Patenting Public-Funded Research for Technology Transfer: A Conceptual-Empirical Synthesis of US Evidence and Lessons for India

The question of protecting intellectual property rights by academic inventors wasnever seriously contemplated until the introduction of the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980 inthe US. The Act allowed universities to retain patent rights over inventions arising outof federally-funded research and to license those patents exclusively or nonexclusivelyat their discretion. This particular legislation was a response to thegrowing concern over the fact that federally funded inventions in the US were notreaching the market place. In this paper, we present a critical review of the USexperience after the Bayh-Dole Act and argue that the evidence is far from beingunambiguous. We discuss the debate surrounding the Act – the extent to which it wassuccessful in achieving its objectives, the unintended consequences, if any, and moregenerally, the effectiveness of IPR as a vehicle of technology transfer fromuniversities. We also discuss the limited evidence on Bayh-Dole type legislationsintroduced in other countries. A new legislation, along the lines of the US Bayh-DoleAct – The Protection and Utilisation of Public Funded IP Bill, 2008 – is presentlybefore the Indian parliament. The paper presents an Indian perspective against thebackdrop of the US experience in an attempt to draw concrete lessons for India.Bayh-Dole Act, public-funded research, universities, patents, India

A study of variable energy blast waves in magnetogas dynamics

In this paper, we have studied the propagation of shock waves in a gaseous medium in presence of magnetic field. The flow fields being spherical, cylindrical or planar, respectively. Salient differences between the instantaneous energy and the variable energy are also presented.&nbsp

Compact stars in f(R,T)f(R,T) gravity

In the present paper we generate a set of solutions describing the interior of a compact star under $f(R,T)$ theory of gravity which admits conformal motion. We consider the equation of state (EOS) $p=\omega\rho$ with $0<\omega<1$ for the fluid distribution consisting normal matter, $\omega$ being the EOS parameter. We therefore explore several aspects of the model analytically along with graphical representations to check the physical validity as well as acceptability of it within specified observational constraint in connection to a dozen of the compact star candidates. It is shown from the presented model that these objects are nothing but radiating compact stars.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, substantial modification based on referee repor