Policies that make intellectual-property rights less secure, make university-industry partnerships more difficult, or otherwise discourage companies from investing in federally supported discoveries may be intended to save the government money or give Washington more control in the short run. But in practice, they risk leaving more promising inventions—and their potential economic impact—stranded in laboratories.
The federal government once held roughly 28,000 patents on inventions arising from taxpayer-supported research. Almost none of them went anywhere. By 1980, the government had managed to license fewer than 5% of them.
Then Congress changed the rules.
The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 allowed universities, nonprofits, and small businesses to retain patent rights to federally supported inventions and license those discoveries to private companies willing to develop them.
Nearly half a century later, the impact of that law can be measured in the trillions. A new report estimates that the commercialization of federally supported university and nonprofit research generated as much as $3.3 trillion in economic output and $1.7 trillion in GDP between 1996 and 2025.
Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.
The $3.3 Trillion Case For Bayh-Dole
Sally C. Pipes
Policies that make intellectual-property rights less secure, make university-industry partnerships more difficult, or otherwise discourage companies from investing in federally supported discoveries may be intended to save the government money or give Washington more control in the short run. But in practice, they risk leaving more promising inventions—and their potential economic impact—stranded in laboratories.
The federal government once held roughly 28,000 patents on inventions arising from taxpayer-supported research. Almost none of them went anywhere. By 1980, the government had managed to license fewer than 5% of them.
Then Congress changed the rules.
The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 allowed universities, nonprofits, and small businesses to retain patent rights to federally supported inventions and license those discoveries to private companies willing to develop them.
Nearly half a century later, the impact of that law can be measured in the trillions. A new report estimates that the commercialization of federally supported university and nonprofit research generated as much as $3.3 trillion in economic output and $1.7 trillion in GDP between 1996 and 2025.
Read the entire op-ed here.
Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.