Celebrate the Bayh-Dole Act's 40th Anniversary

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Bayh-Dole Act. This historic piece of legislation was passed in order to allow inventors to retain ownership of the IP of inventions made under contract with the federal government. This act resulted in a large increase in public-private collaborations and led to countless scientific advances. According to the Bayh-Dole 40 website, the BDA has increased U.S. economic output by $1.7 trillion and supported 5.9 million jobs.

On October 28th there was an anniversary celebration. You can watch the recorded webinar here. According to the event website, the webinar  featured “speakers from across the political, technology transfer, university research, and legal spheres will share their insights and unique experiences with the Bayh-Dole Act — which range from surviving non-Hodgkin lymphoma thanks to a Bayh-Dole-spurred cancer treatment, to overseeing the tech transfer office that managed the licensing of Google, to drafting the legislation itself. The webinar will also touch on the impact of misusing march-in rights as a price control, the relationship between Bayh-Dole and the U.S. patent system, and the risks assumed by the private sector when commercializing a publicly-funded innovation.”

You will also want to check out this graphic from Bio on the successful partnership of publicly-funded research and private sector innovation.