Supreme Court: Bayh-Dole Act Does Not Eclipse Inventor's Rights

On June 6, 2011, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Small Business Patent Procedures Act of 1980 (a/k/a the Bayh-Dole Act)¹ does not displace the centuries-old maxim that "rights in an invention belong to the inventor." Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior Univ. v. Roche Molecular Sys 563 U.S. ---, 2011 WL 2175210, at *4 (June 6, 2011). "Although much in intellectual property law has changed in the 220 years since the first Patent Act, the basic idea that inventors have the right to patent their inventions has not." Id. at *6. "[U]nless there is an agreement to the contrary, an employer does not have rights to an invention which is the original conception of the employee alone." Id. at *7. This rings true even when the Federal Government is footing the bill.