Why did you create BayhDole25, Inc.?

My name is Dan Woods, Executive Director of BayhDole25, Inc.

It is with great pleaasure that I write this blog entry. It is the culmination of months of effort from me and the team I assembled to help, and Susan Finston and Al Chakrabarty, the other members of the board of directors. We have set out to create an educational resource to help explain the value of the role the Bayh Dole Act of 1980 has played in technology transfer.

Our first efforts are this web site, www.BayhDole25.org, and the whte paper we have just published, Bayh Dole at 25 that can be downloaded from http://www.bayhdole25.org/whitepaper. The web site includes this blog as well as the BayhDole25 Wiki (http://www.bayhdole25.org/wiki/) which contains explanations of the basic terms of technology transfer as well as biographies of notable people, and reviews of news, books, and resources.

The inevitable first question that the founders of BayhDole25, Inc get asked after they explain the project is: Why are you doing this? The answer is simple. We are all involved in technology and intellectual property in one way or another and it seemed quite clear to us that there was a vacuum of information about the value of the Bayh Dole Act of 1980.

While the Bayh Dole Act serves the interests of many different groups and has helped spur creation numerous jobs and kick start entire industries, such as bio technology, the most persistent and visible communicators about technology transfer seem to be against the whole idea. Quite simply, we think technology transfer under the Bayh Dole model is a good idea, and we think that just getting the facts out about how the law works and what its effects have been will be a useful contribution to the ongoing policy debate.

So far, this has been a solitary effort of the BayhDole25, Inc. team. But now that we have shown our committment and the sort of work we can do, we are hoping that others will join us to help create educational materials.

You can help in many ways. If you are an expert on issues related to technology transfer, please send us an email so we can interview you, post your thoughts on this blog, or create a few new wiki entries. If you know of more resources, books, or news articles that should be posted on the site, please send those along as well. Our white paper is just our first of many ideas for research into Bayh Dole and technology transfer. If you can help through funding or participation to create more such educational materials, please drop us a line.

And, if you hate the idea of Bayh Dole and technology transfer, please call contact us as well. We want to be rather British in our approach to this effort. We believe we should be able to disagree vehemently but still be able to havae fun together at a dinner party. We respect the views of those who differ from us and are eager to accurately represent all sides of the debate on our site and in our publications. If you fall into this camp, why don't you read the white paper and send us a critique?

This approach represents our starting point. Where we end up will depend on how our work is recieved. We are eager to find out.

This blog will be written most often by me but on occasion guest bloggers will post and entry or two. They will be identified at the top and bottom of each post.

Sincerely,

-Dan Woods
Executive Director
BayhDole25, Inc.