Andrei Iancu and Cooper Godfrey Co-Author Article on the Bayh-Dole Act and Federally Funded Patent Rights Under a New Proposal From the National Institute of Standards and[...]

Andrei Iancu and Cooper Godfrey contributed an article to The Federalist Society. The article, "The Bayh-Dole Act and the Debate Over 'Reasonable Price' March-In Rights," outlines the history, legislative purpose, and success of the bipartisan Act. The Act allows researchers who have received federal funds to retain the patent rights on their discoveries and license their rights to industry for commercialization and development of the discoveries. The article discusses the four statutory criteria for the federal government to "march in" to reclaim and relicense federally funded patents in specific limited circumstances. The consideration of the price of a commercialized product or technology is absent from the statutory criteria. However, under a new proposal from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the reasonableness of the price of a product or technology would for the first time factor into the government's decision to march in on a patent. The article addresses the debate surrounding a reasonable price consideration and, ultimately, why such a consideration is inconsistent with the Act's plain text and legislative history, the government's interpretation of the Act for the past 44 years, and good public policy.

Read the article: "The Bayh-Dole Act and the Debate Over "Reasonable Price" March-In Rights"