Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Out of the Ivory Tower: The Patenting Activity of Canadian University Professors Before the 1980s

  • Published:
Minerva Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study analyses the patenting activities of university science and engineering professors in Canada between 1920 and 1975. Unlike most studies on commercial activities in academia, which typically focus on the post-1980 period and on university practices, we focus on the pre-1980 period and on the individual decisions of professors to patent their inventions. Based on quantitative patent data, we show that patenting, and thus professors’ interest in the possible commercial value of their scientific discoveries made in university laboratories, was relatively common on an individual and informal basis well before the 1980s and the advent of what is now called “academic capitalism”. This contradicts the belief that before that period, universities were a kind of ivory towers in which professors isolated themselves from external influences and engaged only in pure and disinterested research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Source: Based on USPTO data compiled by the Observatoire des sciences et des technologies (OST).

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The apparent decrease in patenting from the 1970s onwards shown in this Figure is an anomaly due to our data collection. Since we looked for patents by professors working at Canadian universities between 1920 and 1960 and checked whether they obtained a patent between 1920 and 1975 in order to give researchers hired in the late 1950s time to obtain their first patents, we certainly overlooked several patentees hired in the 1960s. There is therefore a high probability that the number of patents kept increasing during the 1970s.

  2. Canadian research administrators have analyzed the Bayh-Dole Act though these discussions never resulted in any action on the part of the federal or provincial governments (Advisory Council on Science and Technology 1999).

  3. We have retained: McGill, Queen’s, Montreal, Laval, Alberta, UBC, Toronto and Waterloo, for a total of 3,206 patents analyzed. Tables accessible on demand.

References

  • Advisory Council on Science and Technology. 1999. Public Investments in University Research: Reaping the Benefits Report of the Expert Panel on the Commercialization of University Research, Ottawa.

  • Alymer Scott, David. 1945. CA425499 (A) - Insulin preparation Assignee. Toronto: The Governors of the University of Toronto.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agrawal, Ajay, and Rebecca Henderson. 2002. Putting patents in context: exploring knowledge transfer from MIT. Management Science 48(1): 44–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allin, J. Elizabeth. 1981. Physics at the University of Toronto, 1843–1980. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Auger, Jean-François. 2004a. La recherche utilitaire dans les facultés de génie canadiennes : au service de l’industrie et du gouvernement, 1870–1950. PhD diss: Université du Québec à Montréal.

    Google Scholar 

  • Auger, Jean-François. 2004b. Le régime de recherche utilitaire du professeur-consultant au cours de la Seconde Révolution industrielle. Annals of Science 61(3): 351–374.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Avery, Donald. 1998. The Science of War: Canadian Scientists and Allied Military Technology during the Second World War. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bayliss, William. 1923. quoted in H.H. Dale. 1923. Insulin. Nature 111(2782): 253-254.

  • Bird, G. Malcolm. 2009. Intellectual property, technology offices, and political capital: Canadian universities in the innovation era. In Research and Innovation Policy: Changing Federal Government-University Relations, eds. Bruce Doern and Christopher Stoney, 172–191. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bliss, Michael. 2001. The discovery of Insulin. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blumenthal, David, et al. 1986. Commercializing University Research: Lessons from the Experience of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. New England Journal of Medicine 314: 1621–1626.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bramwell, Allison, and David A. Wolf. 2008. Universities and regional economic development: The entrepreneurial University of Waterloo. Research Policy 37(8): 1175–1187.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cassier, Maurice, and Christiane Sinding. 2008. ‘Patenting in the public interest:’ Administration of insulin patents by the University of Toronto. History and Technology: an International Journal 24(2): 153–171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cassier, Maurice. 2004. Brevet et santé. Dictionnaire de la pensée médicale. Paris: PUF.

    Google Scholar 

  • Castonguay, Stéphane. 2016. Le gouvernement des ressources naturelles: Sciences et territorialités de l’État Québécois, 1867-1939. PUL: Ste-Foy.

    Google Scholar 

  • Couture, Marc, Marcel Dubé, and Pierrick Malissard. 2010. Propriété intellectuelle et université: entre la libre circulation des idées et la privatisation des savoir. Quebec: QPUQ.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crawley, F. John, and Melvin K. Abelseth. 1969. CA811119 (A) – Rabies Vaccine and Process for Preparation thereof, assignee. Toronto: The Governors of the University of Toronto.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dale, H.H., and H.W. Dudley. 1922. Report to the Medical Research Council of Our visit to Canada and the United States, quoted in Michael Bliss. 2001. The Discovery of Insulin, 166. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dale, H.H. 1923. Insulin. Nature 111(2782): 253–254.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dannen, Gene. 1997. The Einstein-Szilard refrigerators. Scientific American 276(1): 91–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Defries, Robert. 1968. The first forty years, 1914–1955: Connaught medical research laboratories, University of Toronto. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Desroches, Jean-Marie, and Robert Gagnon. 1983. Georges Welter et l’émergence de la recherche à l’École polytechnique de Montréal, 1939–1970. Recherches Sociographiques 24(1): 33–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dyer, C. Frederick et al. 1936. US2031943 (A) - Method and means for separating seeds, assignee: Frederick Charles Dyer et al.

  • Eisenberg, Rebecca, and Robert Cook-Deegan. 2018. Universities: The fallen angels of Bayh-Dole? Daedalus 147(4): 76–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eisenberg, Rebecca. 1996. Public research and private development: Patents and technology transfer in government sponsored research. Virginia Law Review 82(8): 1663–1727.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Etzkowitz, Henry. 1994. Knowledge as property: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the debate over academic patent policy. Minerva 32(4): 383–421.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Etzkowitz, Henry. 2002. MIT and the rise of entrepreneurial science. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Feldman, P., and Pierre Desrochers. 2004. Truth for its own sake: academic culture and technology transfer at Johns Hopkins university. Minerva 42(2): 105–126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, Donald, and Janet Atkinson-Grosjean. 2002. Brokers on the boundary: Academy-industry liaison in Canadian universities. Higher Education 44: 449–467.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flexner, Abraham. 1933. Patents are ethical. Science 77: 324–325.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forward, A., Frank. 1953. US2647820 (A) - Process for recovering nickel and/or cobalt ammonium sulfate from solutions containing nickel and/or cobalt values, assignee: Sherritt Gordon Mines Limited.

  • Forward, A., Frank, and Jack Halpern. 1957. US2797977 (A) - Leaching uranium from sulphidic materials, assignee: Canadian Patent Development Limited.

  • Forward, A., Frank, and Herbert Veltman. 1959. BE581156 (A) - Process for the production of zinc, assignee: Sherritt Gordon Mines Limited.

  • Foster, S., John. 1940. US2195168 (A) - Method and apparatus for measuring spectrograms, assignee: Bausch and Lomb Optical Company.

  • Friedland, Martin L. 2013. The University of Toronto: A history. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gagnon, Robert. 1991. Histoire de l’École Polytechnique de Montréal : la montée des ingénieurs francophones. Montreal, Boréal.

  • Gagnon, Robert, and Jean-François Auger. 1995. L’invention en milieu universitaire: les recherches sur la télévision à Polytechnique dans les années 1930. Scientia Canadensis 19: 51–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galvez-Behar, Gabriel. 2018. Louis Pasteur ou l’entreprise scientifique au temps du capitalisme industriel. Annales Histoire, Sciences Sociales 73(3): 629–656.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galvez-Behar, Gabriel. 2020. Posséder la science: la propriété scientifique au temps du capitalisme industriel. Paris: EHESS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gingras, Yves. 1991. Physics and the Rise of Scientific Research in Canada. Montréal: McGill-Queen’s.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gdodefroy, B. Andrew. 2011. Defence and Discovery, 1945-74. Canada’s Military Space Program. Vancouver: UBC Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gregg, Alan. 1933. University patents. Science: 257–259.

  • Guagnini, Anna. 2017. Ivory towers? The commercial activity of British professors of engineering and physics, 1880–1914. History and Technology 33(1): 70–108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamelin, Jean. 1995. Histoire de l’Université Laval : Les péripéties d’une idée. Québec: PUL.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, S. Robin. 1976. A history of higher education in Canada, 1663–1960. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hoye, Katherine A. 2006. University intellectual property policies and university-industry technology transfer in Canada. PhD diss: University of Waterloo.

    Google Scholar 

  • James, Cyril. January 30, 1948. Letter to D.L. Thomson, McGill Archives. RG. 36, C. 10, 2087D.

  • James, Cyril. April 9, 1952. Letter to Archie M. Palmer. McGill Archives. RG. 36, C.10, 2087D.

  • Jarrell, A. Richard, and Yves Gingras. 1991. Introduction: Building Canadian science. Scientia canadensis: Building Canadian Science: The Role of the National Research Council 15(2): 1–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kretz, Andrew. 2013. Inventions for Industry. Canadian patents and development limited and the commercialization of university research in Canada. Scientia Canadensis 36(2): 1–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lund, A.H. John. 1964. CA685697 (A) – Method of producing alloy metal products. assignee: Sherritt Gordon Mines Ltd.

  • Malissard, Pierrick. 2000. Les ‘Start-Up’ de jadis : La production de vaccins au Canada. Sociologie Et Sociétés 32(1): 93–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCain, A. James. 1970. Designed of relevance: The land-grant universities. The Centennial Review 14(1): 91–107.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGill. 1966. Patent Policy. McGill Archives. RG4 C5104270D.

  • Mercelis, Joris, et al. 2017. Commercializing science: nineteenth- and twentieth-century academic scientists as consultants, patentees, and entrepreneurs. History and Technology: An International Journal 33(1): 4–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Merton, K. Robert. 1973. The Sociology of Science: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Metcalfe, Amy Scott. 2010. Revisiting academic capitalism in Canada: No longer the exception. The Journal of Higher Education 81(4): 489–514.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moloney, P. Peter, and Anthony L. Tosoni. 1951. CA479403 (A) – Processes of producing crystalline patassium penicillin, assignee. Toronto: The Governors of the University of Toronto.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mordell, L., Donald. 1952. CA488025 (A) - Gas-Turbine Engines, assignee: Rolls-Royce Limited.

  • Mowery, C. David, and Arvids A. Ziedonis. 2000. Numbers, Quality, and Entry: How Has the Bayh-Dole Act Affected U.S. University Patenting and Licensing? Innovation Policy and the Economy 1: 187–220.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mowery, C. David, and Bhaven N. Sampat. 2001a. Patenting and licensing university inventions: Lessons from the history of the research corporation. Industrial and Corporate Change 10(2): 317–355.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mowery, C. David, and Bhaven N. Sampat. 2001b. University patents and patent policy debates in the USA, 1925–1980. Industrial and Corporate Change 10(3): 781–814.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mowery, C. David, et al. 2001. The growth of patenting and licensing by U.S. universities: An assessment of the effects of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980. Research Policy 30: 99–119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mowery, C. David, et al. 2004. Ivory Tower and Industrial Innovation: University-Industry Technology Transfer Before and After the Bayh-Dole Act. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, Richard R. 2001. Observations on the Post-Bayh-Dole Rise of Patenting at American Universities. Journal of Technology Transfer 26: 13–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nisbet, A. Robert. 1971. The degradation of the academic dogma. New Brunswick: Transactions Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Popp Berman, Elizabeth. 2008. Why Did Universities Start Patenting? Institution-Building and the Road to the Bayh-Dole Act. Social Studies of Science 38(6): 835–871.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sá, Creso, and Andrew J. Kretz. 2015. The entrepreneurship movement and the university. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sá, Creso, and Andrew J. Kretz. 2016. Technology commercialization as university mission: Early historical developments at the University of Toronto. Technology and Culture 57(1): 119–143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sá, Creso, et al. 2013. Techno-Nationalism and the Construction of University Technology Transfer. Minerva 51(4): 443–464.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sampat, B.N. 2006. Patenting and US academic research in the 20th century: The world before and after Bayh-Dole. Research Policy 35: 772–789.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sharma, Manu, Uma Kumar, and Luc Lalande. 2006. Role of University Technology Transfer Offices in University Technology Commercialization: Case Study of the Carleton University Foundry Program. Journal of Services Research 6: 109–139.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shapin, Steven. 2012. The ivory tower: The history of a figure of speech and its cultural uses. The British Journal for the History of Science 45(1): 1–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Slaughter, Sheila, and Larry L. Leslie. 1997. Academic capitalism: Politics, policies and the entrepreneurial university. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Crosbie, and M. Norton Wise. 1989. Energy and Empire: A Biographical Study of Lord Kelvin, 698–810. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swabey, Alan. 1950. The chemist's job and patents. Chemistry in Canada: 3-7.

  • Thomas, Jerry. 1984. John Stuart Foster, McGill University, and the Renascence of Nuclear Physics in Montreal, 1935–1950. Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences 14(2): 357–377.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomson, David L. January 28, 1948. Letter to Cyril James, McGill Archives. RG. 36, C.10, 2087D.

  • Thompson, W.P. 1963. Graduate Education in the Sciences in Canadian Universities. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Thursby, Jerry, et al. 2009. US faculty patenting: Inside and outside the university. Research Policy 38: 14–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tickner, A.W. 1991. The NRC Postdoctorate Fellowships, 1948-1978. Scientia Canadensis: Building Canadian Science: the Role of the National Research Council 15(2): 145–146.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trainer, Matthew. 2004. The patents of William Thomson (Lord Kelvin). World Patent Information 26: 311–317.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turchetti, Simone. 2006. “For Slow Neutrons, Slow Pay”, Erico Fermi’s Patent and the US Atomic Energy Program, 1938-1953. Isis 97(1): 1–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wadhwani, Daniel, et al. 2017. Academic entrepreneurship and institutional change in historical perspective. Management and Organizational History 12(3): 175–198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weiner, Charles. 1982. Science in the Marketplace: Historical Precedents and Problems. In From Genetic Experimentation to Biotechnology: The Critical Transition, eds. W. J. Whelan and Sandra Black, 123-131. New York: John Wiley.

  • Weiner, Charles. 1986. Universities, professors, and patents: A continuing controversy. Technology Review 89: 33–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiner, Charles. 1987. Patenting and academic research: Historical case studies. Science, Technology, and Human Values 12(1): 50–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Mahdi Khelfaoui for his comments on an earlier version of this paper. Thanks also to Jean-François Auger, Isabelle Dufour and Vanessa Sandoval Romero who helped us build the database over the years. Special thanks to the reviewers for their useful comments and suggestions.

Funding

Maxime Colleret receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Yves Gingras declares no funding.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur la science et la technologie – UQAM, Montreal, Canada

    Maxime Colleret & Yves Gingras

Authors
  1. Maxime Colleret
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yves Gingras
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yves Gingras.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

Both authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Colleret, M., Gingras, Y. Out of the Ivory Tower: The Patenting Activity of Canadian University Professors Before the 1980s. Minerva 60, 281–300 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-021-09458-1

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-021-09458-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation