Supreme Court Docket Report - November 1, 2010

Originally published November 1, 2010

Keywords: Supreme Court, Bayh-Dole Act, patent rights

Today the Supreme Court granted certiorari in one case of interest to the business community:

Bayh-Dole Act—Agreements to Assign Patent Rights

Each year, the U.S. government provides billions of dollars in federal funding for research. The Bayh-Dole Act, 35 U.S.C. § 200 et seq., creates a framework for allocating rights in inventions developed with federal funds. Under the Act, college and university, non-profit, and small-business federal contractors may "elect to retain title" to an invention conceived or reduced to practice in the performance of federally funded research. 35 U.S.C. § 202(a). If the contractor does not elect to retain title, the federal government may grant rights in the invention to the inventor. 35 U.S.C. § 202(d).