John P. Walsh and Li Tang in the School of Public Policy (SPP) have been granted US Patent No. 8799237, “Identification Disambiguation in Databases.” The patent develops a novel solution for identification disambiguation in databases of publications, patents, shopping data, and Web searching. The technology has been licensed to Search Technology.

Patenting in the humanities and social science is not unprecedented at the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. Alan Porter, professor emeritus of both the School of Public Policy and of Industrial Systems Engineering, was principal investigator of a patent mapping project in 2013 and was previously granted his own patent.

 “Innovation in technology permeates all of Georgia Tech, and this is just one more example. Whether engineering or policy, people patent, license, and get [their invention] out there. This is what we do and how we approach things at Tech,” said Walsh.

The newly patented system is especially relevant for researchers in academia, as citation becomes a problem when there are authors of the same or similar names at the same institution.

Walsh, who teaches an undergraduate class on patenting, is now able to teach from experience the real-world application of public policy related to patents, having gone through the process of submitting a patent himself.

John P. Walsh is an associate professor in the School of Public Policy. He teaches and conducts research on science, technology, and innovation, using a sociological perspective that focuses on organizations and work to explain how research organizations respond to changes in their policy environment. Recent work includes studies of university-industry linkages in the U.S. and Japan, the effects of research tool patents on biomedical researchers, and country and industry differences in the role of patents in firm strategy.