Public domain solves tech transfer

[Martin, Donald, “Reconsidering the Bayh-Dole Act and the Current University Invention Ownership Model,” Research Policy 38, GDI-JCR]

For the university, placing inventions in the public domain would ameliorate current concerns about commercialization’s influence upon its mission and faculty. In many cases, it would lower the cost and reduce the uncertainty of using new university-developed technologies, thereby accelerating their adoption. Through a radical response to the difficulties of the current model, the public domain model provides an alternative reference point for considering other ownership models. Placing university inventions in the public domain might lead to better solutions compared with using the “perfect world” assumptions underlying most economic models.