Bowman v. Monsanto: Striking at the Roots of Innovation
Bowman v Monsanto involves a farmer who figured out how to get Monsanto’s patented seeds cheaper from a grain elevator than from the company. I won’t attempt to delve into the intricacies of the...
View ArticleTime to Take a Stand
If you’re paying attention at all, you must have noticed that there are forces out there who just don’t like what you do. Some say you’re too focused on making money, some say you’re not focused enough...
View ArticleJeopardizing U.S. Drug Development
Senator Ron Wyden (D- OR) is a man with an idea for lowering health care costs. Unfortunately, it’s an idea which proved disastrous the last time it was forced on the National Institutes of Health. But...
View ArticleBeing Green: Bayh-Dole Makes Every Day Earth Day
Normally when we discuss the impact of the Bayh-Dole Act, allowing universities and small companies to commercialize inventions made with federal support, we focus on the life sciences where the...
View ArticleIntegrating the Federal R&D System into the Economy
We have made significant strides over the past 30 years through laws like the Bayh-Dole Act, the Federal Technology Transfer Act, and supporting Executive Orders leading to the creation of 9,000 new...
View ArticleHigh Noon for Bayh-Dole
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) asked NIH in a July 12 letter to force compulsory licensing of Myriad’s BRCA breast and ovarian cancer genetic test under the “march-in rights”...
View ArticleReforming the Federal R&D System
There’s nothing in the world like the U.S. public research system which is on the cutting edge of every field of science. However, to fully benefit from this investment discoveries must move from the...
View ArticleA Reply to the New England Journal of Medicine
The Bayh-Dole Act was passed because Congress was rightly concerned that potential benefits from billions of dollars of federally funded research were lying dormant on the shelves of government....
View ArticleNIH Gets It Right: Bayh-Dole is not for Price Controls
The National Institutes of Health recently made its long anticipated ruling on a petition seeking to use the “march in” provisions of the Bayh-Dole Act as a mechanism for the government to control...
View ArticleIf patent reform goes wrong
A truism in politics is that issues are driven by stories. One of the most successful is the saga of the patent troll. That’s driving the current debate creating a sense of a malfunctioning patent...
View ArticleWhen Universities Patent Their Research
A few months ago, a judge ordered Apple to pay the University of Wisconsin $506 million for infringing one of its tech patents. Last year, Carnegie-Mellon University won $750 million in a patent...
View ArticleIs NIST Listening? Bayh-Dole is a Model for Federal Tech Transfer Improvement
It would be a tragic mistake to blame federal tech transfer underperformance on Bayh-Dole. Bayh-Dole needs no amending. Bayh-Dole demonstrates how secure patent rights are the lynchpin to society’s...
View ArticleFine Tuning the Trump Administration’s ROI Initiative
The Trump Administration's Return on Investment (ROI) Initiative, which is geared toward increasing the American taxpayer's benefits from federally-supported R&D, is potentially a big step forward....
View ArticleSpecial Interests are Watching Academic Tech Transfer
The original motivation for the Bayh-Dole Act was to encourage the commercialization of academic innovation so that new technologies could be available for the benefit of all. Yet today, I feel...
View ArticleThe Washington Post Misses the Mark on March-In Rights
The National Institute of Standards and Technology recently indicated in its "Return on Investment Initiative draft green paper" that it would issue regulations effectively ending attempts to misuse...
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