Some say the federal government should be allowed to appropriate products patented by universities and developed with private money if the underlying research received any federal funding and if the products are deemed unreasonably priced. In patent law-speak, that’s called “march-in” rights. It would be a major departure from the bipartisan 1980 Bayh-Dole Act, which was silent on what constitutes “reasonable” price and which has been credited with spurring innovation at major universities nationwide, including the UW-Madison. Erik Iverson, who leads the independent Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, has said the proposal “ignores years of input from experts” who have found “there is no legal justification to redefine march-in rights as a price-control tool.”
Office of Strategic Communication