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[Objective] The scientific research system and mechanisms of national laboratories in China still need to be addressed. Leveraging the benefits of large-scale interdisciplinary research and the combination of large-scale team systematic scientific research, enhancing the overall efficiency of the scientific and technological innovation system remains a problem that requires addressing. In connection with the systematic technological innovation needs in the context of 'big science, big research, and big collaboration', the National Laboratories of the United States adopted an organizational model of 'small core + large periphery'. The concentrated breakthrough of major national scientific and technological tasks fully plays a bridging role, widely mobilizes advantageous resources, such as universities and enterprises, and leverages more social forces to invest in basic research. It is worth learning from the high-quality experience of the United States, which is enlightening and can be an important reference for China's national laboratory innovation research system and mechanism, boosting joint research and development of major scientific and technological tasks and speeding up the transformation of major scientific and technological innovation breakthroughs. [Methods] In this study, the inductive translation method is employed to summarize the patterns and characteristics of major scientific and technological tasks in collaboration with U.S. national laboratories and universities, research institutions, and industry from the dimensions of organizational management, selection of cooperative institutions, research funding management, benefit allocation, and achievement protection. Regarding organizational management methods, government departments should coordinate the establishment of flexible joint research and development (R&D) organizational management mechanisms, establish diversified top-level management offices, enhance the efficiency of resource allocation, and establish a temporary joint R&D working group to target breakthroughs in scientific research. Regarding choosing cooperative institutions, a strict mechanism for choosing cooperative institutions should be established, and enterprises and universities should be chosen from the industrial chain for cooperation. Regarding scientific research funding management, various project fund allocation management systems are implemented, and funds are allocated based on the number of scientific and technological research tasks. Enterprises should share the costs of participating in the projects. Regarding benefit allocation and achievement protection, the national laboratory has priority rights to patents, and participants can enjoy intellectual property rights and the significant resources of the national laboratory first. [Results and Conclusions] Based on the learnings from national laboratories in the United States and the actual situation in China, we propose a new type of institutional mechanism for the efficient completion of national strategic tasks in national laboratories in China. The suggestions mainly involve five aspects: 1 ensuring a strong top-level design and establishing a comprehensive management department for major scientific and technological research tasks; 2 leveraging the leading role of the national strategic scientific and technological force and constructing an organizational model for major scientific and technological R&D tasks; 3 promoting and guiding diversified investment and increasing funding support for major scientific and technological research tasks; 4 establishing a mechanism for choosing advantageous teams and implement a multi-route competitive exit mechanism for major scientific and technological research tasks; 5 scientifically coordinating the distribution of benefits and properly handling confidentiality issues in major scientific and technological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that when the technological basis of an industry is changing, the firm's approach to technology sourcing plays a critical role in building the capabilities needed to generate new technical outputs. Using survey and archival data from the U.S. pharmaceutical industry during the period 1981-91, we find that different approaches to technology sourcing (internal R&D and external R&D) are related to different types of biotechnology-based output at the end of the period. Internal R&D was positively associated with patent output. Acquisition activity was positively related to number of biotechnology-based products. Greater use of R&D contracts and licenses was associated with stronger reputation for possessing expertise in biotechnology. These findings underscore the importance of taking a multifaceted approach to technology sourcing in order to build the absorptive capacity needed to generate new technical output. Surprisingly, we also found that involvement in joint ventures was negatively related to patent output. This raises interesting questions about the strategic use of joint ventures in a regime of encompassing technological change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on challenges and responses to United States competitiveness in public-sector technology. An overview of the impact of public-sector technology, the development of alliances between federal laboratories and contractors, and the strategic challenges associated with such alliances on U.S. competitiveness is presented. The author states that any plan to increase U.S. international competitiveness must include as a key aspect an increase in cooperation between the federal government and industry in order to facilitate technology transfer initiatives.

This paper is a critique of the current US patent system along general consequentialist lines. I present a pro tanto case against it because of its effects on scientific inquiry. The patent system is often thought to be justified (or necessary) because it provides incentives to innovate. I challenge this concern. Economists and legal scholars have spent a good portion of time analyzing particular aspects of the patent system. I here synthesize their work, showing how it amounts to a pro tanto moral case against patents. This is the case even though patents are said to incentivize innovation, its disclosure, and its transfer to interested parties. I explore all of these possibilities, finding them to only weakly (at best) support the institution of patent rights. Juxtaposing this weak case for patents along with various problems that patents cause for science, we find a pro tanto case against our current patent system. To my knowledge, no one has tried to synthesize the various concerns I raise, with particular attention to not only the patent’s system purported ability to incentivize innovation, but also to disclose and transfer technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the U.S. licensing experience longitudinally, discussing policy implications, addressing emerging trends specifically among developing nations, and suggesting that royalty revenue-driven technology licensing in developing countries is the wrong public policy to adopt. Enactment of the Patent and Trademark Law Amendments Act in 1980 encouraged research institutions in the U.S. to patent technology developed with federal funding. This enabled substantial growth in patenting. The article explores the effects of the act in licensing at U.S. research institutions. A detailed examination of licensing patterns among U.S. institutions reveals four broad institutional categories. Investment in patents and licensing programs has certain advantages, such as encouraging development of technology and innovation. But earning licensing income from academic research is neither a lucrative nor a reliable financial investment. It is unlikely that scientific centers in developing countries would prove more likely or capable or producing readily commercial technologies than those in the U.S. The article suggests that efforts to transfer technology and foster economic growth in developing countries ought to be encouraged, but emphasis on licensing programs may prove to be financially unproductive.

The article focuses on technology transfer in universities in the U.S. There has been a dramatic increase in patenting and licensing activities at U.S. research universities since the late 1970s. This study attempts to gain a better understanding of the nature of the projects that led to inventions reported in invention reports, the motivations for the research, and the processes and mechanisms involved in connecting with industry on how university inventions get into practice, the so called technology transfer. The cases studied were inventions created at Columbia University and Stanford University. The study found that intellectual property rights are likely to be most important for embryonic inventions, and unimportant for inventions that are of immediate use to industry. The study also found that technology transfer offices' marketing activities are most important for invention in technological areas where the links between academia and industry are weak. A further finding indicated that the dangers of exclusive licensing are greatest for embryonic inventions.

This article focuses on international technology transfer and intellectual property rights. International technology transfer and intellectual property rights have become hot topics in corporate board rooms and business school classrooms alike. As nations continue to lower barriers to foreign investment, technology transfer will play an increasing role in stimulating economic growth and enhancing international opportunities for U.S. industry. The notion of technology embodies any combination of diverse skills, knowledge, or procedures. Technology may be tangible, for example, when it takes the form of plant or machinery, or intangible, when it consists, for example, of technical or managerial know-how. Although technology is frequently protected by the grant of exclusive intellectual property rights, it need not entail only highly complex and sophisticated information. Technology transfer generally consists of an integrated series of commercial transactions. The objective of the transfer is typically to establish a plant and begin production, or to provide commercial services or governmental infrastructure.

The article reports on the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act (B-D), which has had a profound impact on science in the U.S. and, indirectly, in other nations as well. Under B-D, the U.S. government renounced intellectual property claims on research supported by federal funds in universities or other nongovernment institutions. The argument in its favor went this way: because few patents were being issued on government-funded work, scientists and their institutions needed an incentive to patent their discoveries and then license the new technology for development into useful products. To those who had worried about technology transfer, it's a huge success.