Ivory Tower and Industrial Innovation: University-Industry Technology Transfer Before and After the Bayh-Dole Act

Abstract

Ivory Tower and Industrial Innovation: University-Industry Technology Transfer Before and After the Bayh-Dole Act provides an insightful multi-faceted assessment of licensing and patenting activity in the United States and adds additional perspective on the prevailing view of the importance of the Bayh-Dole Act (1980). What is the prevailing view? The Act, which granted universities (and small business) patent and licensing rights to federally funded research, is often cited as a key ingredient in the significant expansion of the technology transfer and commercialization efforts of American universities which, in turn, helped fuel the economic boom of the 1990s. While the authors acknowledge the importance of the Act, their basic argument is that "much of the current discussion of the economic role of the U.S. research universities and the contributions of U.S. universities to the economic boom of the 1990s, exaggerates the role of the Bayh-Dole" (p. 179). While the Act had a definite impact on the patent and licensing environment, the authors demonstrate that patenting and licensing activities were an important part of academe for many institutions well before Bayh-Dole was passed, and the Act is better seen as an evolutionary step rather than the revolutionary step that it is often purported to be.

The book's shortcomings are few. The chapters on the evolution of patenting and licensing in the United States could have benefited from greater reference to the economic and political aspects of specific eras to help place certain developments in context. For example, the emergence of the "public good" argument in the 1930s needs to be seen in the context of the unbridled enthusiasm for the "private good" in the late 1920s. Interestingly, the single largest technology transfer activity-university graduates-is not mentioned by the authors. Further, there is little reference to the overall expansion of higher education in the latter half of the 20th century and the link between increases in graduate enrolment and research funding. However, the book is well organized, well documented and blends case studies with quantitative analysis to provide a rich source of detailed information about patenting and licensing activities and the technology transfer industry. There are numerous "nuggets" of information and insight that add "colour" to the history of university-industry linkages and the Notes to each chapter provide considerably more than just references.