A researcher from the Rochester Institute of Technology just posted an interesting looking paper on SSRN: Commercial Development of University Research: The Role of Patents, Contributions to Economic Analysis & Policy Vol. 5, No. 1, Art 19.

This paper analyzes how university patents encourage university-firm collaboration for technology transfer. Focusing on factors other than competition, I find that the two may not collaborate either because the firm finds in-house development cheaper, or because of a disagreement about the potential product's profitability. In both cases, university patents can encourage collaboration by increasing the invention's diffusion time, and therefore play a role even in the absence of any competition. The model also suggests instances in which we can expect to see a greater impact of university patents on collaboration....

Professor Michael Porter from Harvard tells us that innovaiton is the providence of private industry, yet universities also play an important role in providing industry with valuable ideas and inventions. All the more reason to not include them in the definition of patent trolls!!!