Institutions and Intellectual Property : The Influence of Institutional Forces on University Patenting

The implementation of the Bayh-Dole Patent and Trademark Amendments Act of 1980 aided the ease with which universities could patent innovations supported by federal funding.However, environmental and societal factors are often overlooked when accounting for this ease and increase in obtaining patents. The research is focused on the ways in which societal forces, such as incentives, shape university and governmental policies promoting university patent creation.The overall research process is described at length, including descriptions of individual, basic, applied, and mixed research processes.Then the influence of societal factors on individual and university decisions is explored.It is suggested that external factors, like social change, influence diffusion through direct impact, through changing university norms, through policy responses, and through university institutional change. Data for this research were collected from 1970 to 1997 to understand more accurately the impact of both university and governmental policies on changes.Findings indicate that Bayh-Dole has positively influenced the transfer of technology from university to industry by making university patenting more acceptable.Interestingly, an increase in industry R&D during this time has also resulted in fewer university patents.(AKP)