Us Faculty Patenting: Inside and Outside the University

27 Pages Posted: 13 Jul 2007 Last revised: 22 Sep 2022

See all articles by Jerry G. Thursby

Jerry G. Thursby

Emory University - Department of Economics; Georgia Institute of Technology - Scheller College of Business

Anne W. Fuller

California State University, Sacramento - College of Business Administration

Marie C. Thursby

Georgia Institute of Technology - Strategic Management Area; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Date Written: July 2007

Abstract

This paper examines the empirical anomaly that in a sample of 5811 patents on which US faculty are listed as inventors, 26% of the patents are assigned solely to firms rather than to the faculty member's university as is dictated by US university employment policies or the Bayh Dole Act. In this paper we estimate a series of probability models of assignment as a function of patent characteristics, university policy, and inventor fields in order to examine the extent to which outside assignment is nefarious or comes from legitimate activities, such as consulting. Patents assigned to firms (whether established or start-ups with inventor as principal) are less basic than those assigned to universities suggesting these patents result from faculty consulting. A higher inventor share increases the likelihood of university assignment as compared with assignment to a firm in which the inventor is a principal but it has no effect on consulting with established firms versus assignment to the university. Faculty in the physical sciences and engineering are more likely to assign their patents to established firms than those in biological sciences.

Suggested Citation

Thursby, Jerry G. and Fuller, Anne W. and Thursby, Marie C., Us Faculty Patenting: Inside and Outside the University (July 2007). NBER Working Paper No. w13256, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1000358

Jerry G. Thursby (Contact Author)

Emory University - Department of Economics ( email )

1602 Fishburne Drive
Atlanta, GA 30322
United States

Georgia Institute of Technology - Scheller College of Business ( email )

800 West Peachtree St.
Atlanta, GA 30308
United States

Anne W. Fuller

California State University, Sacramento - College of Business Administration ( email )

School of Business Administration
Sacramento, CA 95819-6081
United States

Marie C. Thursby

Georgia Institute of Technology - Strategic Management Area ( email )

800 West Peachtree St.
Atlanta, GA 30308
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

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