WASHINGTON (December 8, 2023) — Today, C4IP Board Members and former Federal Circuit Court Judges Kathleen O’Malley and Paul Michel issued the following statement on the Biden administration’s decision to claim a newfound authority, under the 43-year-old Bayh-Dole Act, to rescind patent licenses on drugs, energy, climate change, and all other inventions that benefit from federal research funding:
“The administration’s proposed rule is legally unsupportable. Nowhere does the Bayh-Dole Act permit march-in rights to be exercised as a means of controlling price. And from a policy standpoint, the proposed rule is ill-conceived. The Bayh-Dole Act catalyzed decades of American innovation by decentralizing the licensing process for federally funded research. Upending the law because some people do not like some prices is short-sighted — and threatens to choke off investment into tomorrow’s life-changing and lifesaving technologies.”
About Council for Innovation Promotion: The Council for Innovation Promotion is a bipartisan coalition dedicated to promoting strong and effective intellectual property rights that drive innovation, boost economic competitiveness, and improve lives everywhere.