The Bayh-Dole Act or University and Small Business Patent Procedures Act is United States legislation dealing with intellectual property arising from federal government-funded research. Adopted in 1980, Bayh-Dole is codified in 35 U.S.C. § 200-212 and implemented by 37 C.F.R. 401[2]. Among other things, it gave US universities, small businesses and non-profits intellectual property control of their inventions and other intellectual property that resulted from such funding.

The Act, sponsored by two senators, Birch Bayh of Indiana and Bob Dole of Kansas, was enacted by the United States Congress on December 12, 1980. Perhaps the most important change of Bayh-Dole is that it reversed the presumption of title. Bayh-Dole permits a university, small business, or non-profit institution to elect to pursue ownership of an invention in preference to the government.

This site contains copies of the papers of the "founding fathers" of the Act - key players over years who advanced the legislation.

The site also will contain a bibliographic database of literature across disciplines spanning decades. Pierce Law hopes that this site will be the premier web resource for researchers on university technology transfer.

More information

Read Bayh-Dole Act Revisionism articles written by Founding Fathers Howard Bremer, Joe Allen and Norm Latker offered up by the UHN Law alum run megasite 'IP Watchdog'.

Donald Kennedy, the editor-in-chief of Science, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, explores the Bayh-Dole Amendment of 1980 which resulted in a dramatic growth in academic centers devoted to patenting and licensing faculty inventions. Does this change the character not only of science but of academic life?

Science and the University: An Evolutionary Tale - Bayh-Dole and the Enclosing Frontier