From the Syllabus:
Held: The Bayh-Dole Act does not automatically vest title to federally funded inventions in federal contractors or authorize contractors to unilaterally take title to such inventions.
University faculty leadership now need to use this opportunity to reform patent management practices on campus. End the compulsory policies claiming authority from Bayh-Dole, end the rampant fixation on commercialization to the exclusion of practical application, collaboration, and broad public access, end the use of public funds for organizations such as AUTM, which has led the attack on faculty inventors and on the Bayh-Dole Act itself.
Now it is up to the faculty to take the lead on research IP, on technology transfer, innovation, and impact in the community. Time to form a task force on each campus to examine IP policy and rescind compulsory language, recall “training” materials that would lead one to believe university ownership is inevitable or desirable or in the public interest, and foreground the importance faculty, staff, and students have in leading the developing of innovative ideas arising in research.
There is a role for institutional resources. It does not have to come with compulsory claims or a misreading of Bayh-Dole or ignoring the standard patent rights clause that the university agrees to in each federal funding agreement. Those resources, and any management role for the university, and any benefit to the university, comes about by request of the inventors and research team, through mutually acceptable arrangements decided by negotiation based on the circumstances that present, and without any claim to conflict of interest or public loss if inventors pursue development without university involvement.
Research! Freedom! Innovation!
There’s your basic university IP policy. Time for a sea change to revitalize American university research innovation.