Faculty and Research

Abstract: John's talk will discuss patents on stem cell technology owned by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), a nonprofit institution associated with the University of Wisconsin. These patents have been a focal point for controversy about the granting and enforcement of rights in biomedical technology. As in the case of WARF's stem cell patents, worries that patent rights in such technology can delay or limit follow-on research are exacerbated when the technology is difficult to replicate and access to the technology therefore commonly requires a material transfer agreement (MTA) with a rights holder. Further complications can result from use restrictions in agreements with the donors of tissue or embryos from which transferred material was derived. The controversy over WARF's stem cell patents highlights these concerns and provides lessons about institutions and practices that might smooth the path for future follow-on research

Abstract: We advance theory in strategic management by suggesting two arguments for why and when firms may increase their performance by waiving their property rights on rare and valuable assets. We propose that firms may benefit from reducing their formal resource control if doing so either (1) increases upstream supply productivity by third parties and/or (2) helps firms capture value from a resource jointly with others when no single firm can appropriate the resource using its individual property rights alone. Drawing on a variety of original data pertaining to open source software (OSS) programming activity, firm products, and firms' patent acquisitions, we empirically test whether corporate patent non-assertion claims against OSS users can be explained through our theoretical lenses ex post. Our findings indicate that firms' patent pledges are a subtle means to capture value from a (partially) public resource.

**Please note this seminar will be held in CUMNOCK 220**

Benjamin Jones, (Kellogg School of Management)

"The Knowledge Trap: Human Capital and Development Reconsidered"

"knowledge trap" occurs where skilled workers avoid narrow, deep training and thus fail, collectively, to embody frontier knowledge. Standard human capital accounting is shown to underestimate the resulting skill differences between rich and poor nations. The theory may explain price, wage and income differences across countries, and suggests novel interpretations of immigrant outcomes, poverty traps, and the brain drain, among other applications.