Legal Scholarship Blog

Innovation systems vary around the world, with different mixes of government and private funding, approaches to technology transfer, and opportunities for startups and independent inventors. The US innovation system has responded historically to periods of high tariffs, international conflict, and inflation with restrictions on patenting and direct government involvement in the economy, and to periods of stability and international trade with intellectual property reforms and incentives for technology commercialization. As countries around the world retrench to an era of higher tariffs, rising inflation, reduced globalization, and increased techno-nationalism, how will the US innovation system respond? Will successful or failed approaches from the past return? How can key elements of the innovation system—science-based industries, universities, government labs, the IP system, and entrepreneurial communities—respond to the significant changes happening at present?

Panelists

• Jonathan Barnett, Senior Fellow for Innovation Policy, C-IP2, and Professor of Law at the University of Southern California, Gould School of Law
• Dedric Carter, Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Chief Commercialization Officer, Washington University in St. Louis
• Arthur Daemmrich, Director, Smithsonian Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation
• Valencia Martin Wallace, Deputy Commissioner for Patents, United States Patent and Trademark Office

Moderator

• Sean O’Connor, Professor of Law and Faculty Director, George Mason University Center for Intellectual Property x Innovation Policy