Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Lisa L. Ouellette

Matt Clancy @mattsclancy.bsky.social · 12d

New research by Pierre Azoulay, Danielle Li, Bhaven Sampat and me.

Earlier this year, the President’s budget proposed a 40% cut to the budget of the NIH. This motivated us to ask: what if the NIH had been 40% smaller?

2 17 24

Reposted by Lisa L. Ouellette

Holly Fernandez Lynch @hollylynchez.bsky.social · 15d

This is bonkers. FDA is going to change leucovorin's label based on a lit review with data on 40 patients w/ cerebral folate deficiency and comparisons to "known natural history."

www.statnews.com/2025/09/22/f...

FDA brings back GSK's leucovorin drug that RFK Jr. touted as autism treatment

The Trump administration is touting leucovorin as a treatment for autism.

www.statnews.com

21 150 290

Reposted by Lisa L. Ouellette

Genevieve Lakier @genevievelakier.bsky.social · 19d

In this post I explain why the suspension of Kimmel’s show looks like a blatant 1A violation, as all NINE members of SCOTUS last year made clear.... but also why courts may not be able to do much about it (and yet Kimmel should still sue!) blog.dividedargument.com/p/did-brenda...

Did Brendan Carr Violate the First Amendment? And Can Anything Be Done?

the constitutional law of jawboning

blog.dividedargument.com

2 58 160

Lisa L. Ouellette @patentscholar.bsky.social · 19d

Looking forward to delivering the academic spotlight at the @law.stanford.edu Silicon Valley IP Forum on Oct. 3. Free registration here: conferences.law.stanford.edu/siliconvalle...

Home - Silicon Valley IP Forum 2025

Silicon Valley IP Forum aims to foster discussion and collaboration among IP professionals in the Silicon Valley area (and beyond). The conference will feature insightful discussions among judges, la...

conferences.law.stanford.edu

2 2

Reposted by Lisa L. Ouellette

Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 21d

Heard. See @patentscholar.bsky.social 's "Classic Patent Scholarship" project, writtendescription.blogspot.com/p/classic-sc..., which builds on my "Lost Classics of Intellectual Property Law," available on SSRN. Newton, Hooke, OTSOG, and all that.

Classic Patent Scholarship

Lisa Larrimore Ouellette's Patent & IP Blog, Reviewing Recent Scholarship on Patent Law, IP Theory, and Innovation

writtendescription.blogspot.com

3 3

Reposted by Lisa L. Ouellette

Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social · Aug 21

JUST IN: 9th Circuit panel refuses Trump administration bid to lift order requiring it to reinstate University of California grants canceled under Trump DEI orders. 3-0. Judges Paez (Clinton), Christen (Obama), Desai (Biden). Doc: www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

UCResearcherStayCA9082125

www.documentcloud.org

17 190 880

Lisa L. Ouellette @patentscholar.bsky.social · Aug 20

New article with @marklemley.bsky.social on how genAI facilitates academic plagiarism, why this shouldn't become a copyright/legal problem, and what universities should do about it (forthcoming in U Chi L Rev Online): papers.ssrn.com/abstract=539...

The figure shows a Venn diagram with three overlapping circles labeled “Copyright Infringement,” “Plagiarism,” and “Bad Scholarly Practices.” It maps common behaviors to the regions where these circles intersect: copying expression without attribution (in all three); copying ideas or facts without attribution (plagiarism + bad scholarly practice); copying expression with attribution but beyond what’s needed for a research purpose (copyright infringement + bad scholarly practice); copying ideas or facts with attribution to unreliable sources (bad scholarly practice only); and copying expression with attribution for a research purpose (copyright infringement only, but will generally be fair use).

1 8 32

Lisa L. Ouellette @patentscholar.bsky.social · Aug 10

The @statnews.com story suggests they are thinking of march-in rights, but that would only allow them to grant additional licenses after determining that certain statutory criteria are met, which Harvard could appeal to the Court of Federal Claims (see 35 USC 203) www.statnews.com/2025/08/08/h...

Trump administration launches investigation into Harvard’s federally funded research patents

The Trump administration escalates its fight with Harvard, beginning the "march-in" process involving patent ownership.

www.statnews.com

1 2 7

Lisa L. Ouellette @patentscholar.bsky.social · Aug 10

This threat to "take over" Harvard's patents is bewildering—seems like yet another example of using a tenuous legal threat to retaliate against universities for not complying with unrelated demands. I'm quoted in this WSJ story (gift link):

Trump Administration Threatens to Take Over Harvard’s Patents

The move is the latest escalation in the White House’s battle with the Ivy League school.

www.wsj.com

3 25 59

Reposted by Lisa L. Ouellette

Mikhail Zinshteyn @mzinshteyn.bsky.social · Aug 1

NEW: Trump's suspensions of UCLA's research grants is around 800 -- the ~300 we knew about for NSF and *500* NIH grants. That's according to a memo a UCLA administrator sent to the campus's researchers with grants two hours ago.

Mikhail Zinshteyn @mzinshteyn.bsky.social · Aug 1

I chased this all day:

UCLA research grants suspended after Trump administration faulted campus for antisemitism

calmatters.org/education/hi...

UCLA research grants suspended after Trump administration faulted campus for antisemitism

The Justice Department issued UCLA a notice of violation for not responding “adequately” to complaints about antisemitism.

calmatters.org

2 19 21

Reposted by Lisa L. Ouellette

Sarah Fackrell @design-law.bsky.social · Aug 1

Are there any other areas where people can get access to the system the agency's initial decisionmakers will use, but only if they pay?

Amy Landers @amylanders.bsky.social · Aug 1

The USPTO's design patent search tool is also available to law firms and corporations through Clarivate (for a fee, presumably). I'm not sure how I feel about the gov't using AI that is paywalled for the private sector. But here we are. clarivate.com/intellectual...

2 5 4

Lisa L. Ouellette @patentscholar.bsky.social · Jul 30

Apparently OMB "reversed course" on the funding pause www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Trump Administration Scraps Effort to Pause Health-Research Funding

The administration halted and then restarted billions in new research grants flowing from the National Institutes of Health.

www.wsj.com

Reposted by Lisa L. Ouellette

STAT @statnews.com · Jul 30

#Breaking: Trump administration blocks NIH from awarding any research grants and contracts
www.statnews.com/2025/07/29/t...

Trump administration blocks NIH from awarding any research grants and contracts

The order applies to the entirety of new and, possibly, ongoing research grant dollars that go to universities and academic medical centers.

www.statnews.com

3 73 72

Reposted by Lisa L. Ouellette

STAT @statnews.com · Jul 29

NIH plans to shrink the share of grant applications it will award for the remainder of the fiscal year, in some cases by more than half.
www.statnews.com/2025/07/29/n...

NIH is shrinking the number of research projects it funds due to a new Trump policy

NIH plans to shrink the share of grant applications it will award for the remainder of the fiscal year, in some cases by more than half.

www.statnews.com

3 21 17

Lisa L. Ouellette @patentscholar.bsky.social · Jul 28

Or Harberger self-assessed property taxation, mentioned in patent context by Posner & Weyl (academic.oup.com/jla/article/...) and discussed in more detail by Daniel Hemel (lawreview.uchicago.edu/sites/defaul...) as improvement to patent buyout proposals

2

Lisa L. Ouellette @patentscholar.bsky.social · Jul 28

Indeed! It's related to proposals to get firms to self-value IP for tax purposes but also be stuck with those valuations for licensing/damages purposes.

1 3

Lisa L. Ouellette @patentscholar.bsky.social · Jul 28

I would have said the same about many recent policy changes…

1 1

Lisa L. Ouellette @patentscholar.bsky.social · Jul 28

Lots of practical issues here, but if they want to do a big overhaul, I still think a loser-pays fee structure has a lot to recommend it writtendescription.blogspot.com/2016/07/neel...

Neel Sukhatme: Make Patent Examination Losers Pay

Lisa Larrimore Ouellette's Patent & IP Blog, Reviewing Recent Scholarship on Patent Law, IP Theory, and Innovation

writtendescription.blogspot.com

3 5

Lisa L. Ouellette @patentscholar.bsky.social · Jul 28

Could be a major change to patent fee structure: Commerce is "discussing charging patent holders 1% to 5% of their overall patent value" as part of Howard Lutnick's "plans to raise revenue and narrow the government's budget deficit" www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Exclusive | Trump Administration Weighs Patent System Overhaul to Raise Revenue

Commerce Department officials are discussing a new fee based on patent value, which could fuel backlash from businesses.

www.wsj.com

4 2 2

Reposted by Lisa L. Ouellette

Stanford Law School @law.stanford.edu · Jul 25

“Despite billions in public and private funding, therapeutic development in the United States remains poorly aligned with the country’s most pressing health needs,” says SLS’s @patentscholar.bsky.social, co-author of a new @theNASEM report on drug development reform. law.stanford.edu/stanford-law...

Stanford Law’s Lisa Ouellette Helps Shape New Report on Drug Development Reform | Stanford Law School

The diseases causing the most suffering and death in the United States do not always attract investment in new treatments. That’s the disconnect exp

law.stanford.edu

2 2

Reposted by Lisa L. Ouellette

Sarah Karlin-Smith @sarahkarlin-smith.bsky.social · Jul 24

One of FDA's Oncology Division has lost what is essentially the equivalent of a full drug review team. It's malignant hematology review teams are expected to have a staff less than half the intended size as more staff depart this August.
insights.citeline.com/pink-sheet/a...

US FDA Cancer Reviewers Heading For The Exits, Potentially Impacting Review Timelines

US FDA's cancer drugs division is feeling the effect of drug reviewer departures, despite efforts to keep them at the agency.

insights.citeline.com

7 120 230

Reposted by Lisa L. Ouellette

Pam Herd @pamherd.bsky.social · Jul 24

Translation for non-scientists. The major funder for cancer research in the world is now only funding proposals that score in top 4 percent. They’re funding roughly 2/3 fewer proposals than they had in recent years. I suspect the funding line has actually never been this low.

Mike Feigin 🥯 @mikefeigin.bsky.social · Jul 23

“With these considerations, we expect to fund through the 4th percentile.”

There it is, in black and white, the destruction of cancer research in the US.

Edwin Antony @professorantony.bsky.social · Jul 23

Funding policy for 2025 from NCI. Was just released: 4 percentile…maybe!
www.cancer.gov/grants-train...

5 95 170

Reposted by Lisa L. Ouellette

FactPost @factpostnews.bsky.social · Jul 23

Reporter: The FDA has a new AI tool that's intended to speed up drug approvals. But several FDA employees say the new AI helper is making up studies that do not exist. One FDA employee telling us, 'Anything that you don't have time to double check is unreliable. It hallucinates confidently'

170 1.5K 4.4K

Reposted by Lisa L. Ouellette

Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · Jul 21

Final CBO score of the "big beautiful bill" is out

Largest Medicaid cuts ever - in fact, at least 4 times the size of the previous largest; $894-$990 bn cut

Kicks 10 million off health insurance

Largest SNAP cuts ever, $197 bn cut

Still increases the deficit by $3.4 trillion from huge tax cuts

53 990 1.6K

Reposted by Lisa L. Ouellette

Megan Zahneis @mzahneis.bsky.social · Jul 21

ICYMI: I covered the Senate approps committee's vote to preserve the NSF's funding. While far from a done deal, research advocates celebrated the news.

“For now, dodging an existential cut is a big win in light of everything that’s going on.” - @kennethmevans.bsky.social

#AcademicSky #HigherEd

Trump Proposed Slashing the National Science Foundation’s Budget. A Key Senate Committee Just Refused.

Legislation approved on Thursday by the Senate Committee on Appropriations would preserve nearly all of the NSF’s funding.

www.chronicle.com

2 2