Join the Fight Against Misuse of March-In Rights

 On December 5, 2023, the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) issued  draft interagency framework for march in rights, one of the most challenging threats to our profession is now on our doorstep. The Bayh-Dole Act’s march-in provision allows the federal government to take back patent rights for federally funded inventions under very specific circumstances. The "draft interagency guidance framework" proposed by NIST seeks to substantially increase the government's march-in authority.  AUTM believes this misguided effort to expand march-in rights will stifle innovation by creating significant uncertainty in licensing of all federally funded inventions—not just drugs.
 
AUTM has joined numerous other organizations – including all of the major higher ed associations – in opposing this proposal. In comments filed with NIST in February, AUTM made these three key points:
 

1. The guidelines go well beyond the scope of NIST’s authority to rewrite the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980
2. If the intent is to lower drug prices, these guidelines will have no impact
3. The overriding concern is that should these new guidelines be implemented, we will likely see chaos in the development and marketing of all sorts of new inventions, damaging American leadership in technology around the world

For more specifics, see  AUTM's comments.
 

What Can You Do:

1. While we await a final decision about the proposed framework, continue to communicate with state and federal officials about the serious impact these proposals would have. Use examples of key technologies your campus has created that could be attacked by others seeking to block those innovations from ever reaching the public
2. Educate the leadership in your own organization
3. Look for ways to communicate these concerns to the public through op-ed pieces or other kinds of information from your organization

 

Other Resources

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It's Not Just About Drug Companies: Draft Framework on March-In Rights Has Awakened a Sleeping Giant

Joe Allen
Guest Columnist

While the pending “Draft Interagency Guidance Framework for Considering the Exercise of March-In Rights” issued by the Department of Commerce poses the gravest threat to the Bayh-Dole Act since its passage, it’s also done some good.  It’s alerted an incredibly broad network of stakeholders that it isn’t just drug makers who are being attacked—it’s everyone involved in commercializing federally funded inventions.

For many years, defenders of the Bayh-Dole Act have been warning that attempts to misuse the march-in provision of the law to impose government price controls would unleash the furies on anyone developing a federally funded patent or founding a startup company based on academic inventions. Yet because the critics’ rhetoric always focuses on drug prices, that claim wasn’t taken seriously—until now.

As the word spreads that this attack isn’t limited to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) but applies equally to every federal agency, those who thought they were safely in the grandstands now find themselves on the playing field.
 Read More!