Patent experts call for uniform policy

Abstract

Although there is no one government patent policy to deal with inventions that are made by the private sector in the course of performing federally funded R&D, efforts are afoot to come up] with one. At present, policies are developed agency by agency in accordance with their respective statutes. As a result, the^e are now more than 20 different government patent policies. Recent hearings conducted by the House Subcommittee on Domestic & International Scientific Planning & Analysis, chaired by Rep. Ray Thornton (D.-Ark.), provided committee members with a synopsis of what the current government patent policies are and what ingredients should go into a uniform patent policy. Under existing arrangements, some agencies acquire title to all inventions resulting from federally funded R&D. Other agencies acquire title to all inventions but may waive title to private contractors under certain conditions. And some agencies practice one of several policies, either acquiring title, acquiring only a license, or ...