Patents and Professors

Who owns inventions developed at US research universities? And who benefits from the current ownership regime? To answer these questions, Anna Marion Bieri discusses the transformation which has taken place in academia in regard to the involvement and commercialisation of patents and the effect university patenting has had on the academic mission and the scientific commons. Special emphasis is placed on the history and implementation of the Bayh-Dole Act – a widely-discussed law which facilitated the patenting and commercialisation of federally funded university inventions. On this basis, the author explores who should benefit from university inventions and how the current ownership regime should be modified to achieve this purpose. Finally, Anna Marion Bieri proposes that universities employ patents strategically in accordance with their research strengths.