The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, the federal law that jumpstarted technology transfer into a $2 billion-plus industry, faces its severest test in the patent dispute pitting Stanford University against Roche Molecular Systems. The case exposed the law’s failure to ensure that researchers and other inventors properly protect their intellectual property rights in ways that do not harm the universities that employ them or the government that funds them.
Chief Justice John Roberts addressed that failure head-on during oral arguments heard on February 28 for the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University v. Roche Molecular Systems Inc. et. al case. “Is there a reason that the federal government can’t just say, ‘From now on we’re not going to give any money to Stanford or anybody else until they have an agreement making clear that the inventor is going to ensure that title rests with the university, which then triggers the Bayh-Dole Act?’” Chief Justice Roberts asked, not so rhetorically.
To read the full, original article click on this link: GEN | Analysis & Insight: Stanford v. Roche Could Place Tech Transfer on Shaky Ground
Author: Alex Philippidis
