Tomorrow night @defuseDUBLIN we are launching a grass-roots movement/technology accelerator called alt|start which is asking Universities to rethink how they manage intellectual property and the commercialisation of ICT research results.

Like all things in life it all comes down to timing, and the launch of alt|start couldn’t have been timed any better.  There has been a lot of press recently about some new case law coming out of the US & Australia that calls into question the very foundations of the technology transfer industry, namely the automatic assignment of IP rights from inventor to University/Employer.

The US Court of Appeals ruled that the ownership of inventions is not as black and white as faculty were led to believe and in certain circumstances researchers may even own the rights to their inventions!  Which means that US universities can no longer use the Bayh-Dole Act as leverage in a commercialisation monopoly.  I firmly believe that inventors should have the option to pursue their commercialisation goals with whom and however they choose, within the boundaries of their funding commitments. alt|start is a step in that direction.

Imagine it will take some time to work through the appeals process, but the writing is on the wall.  It most definitely is not business as usual in the technology technology industry.

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