With Japanese industry challenging America’s competitiveness in the 1970s, Democratic Sen. Birch Bayh of Indiana and Republican Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas teamed up to do something about it.

The United States remained innovative. Federally funded research produced many discoveries. By the end of the 1970s, the U.S. government owned 28,000 patents from research it funded. 

But the government retained and controlled the property rights from Washington, rather than leaving intellectual property ownership and decisions about transferring or using new technology to the institutions involved in the discovery. Without secure rights or exclusivity, commercial entities couldn’t risk turning the discoveries into products. Thus, less than 5 percent of those inventions had any attempt made to bring them to market.

The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 solved this lost potential from innovation’s unrealized practical use. This law facilitates commercialization by providing secure, exclusive property rights and democratizing control over technology management. Bayh-Dole has fostered collaboration among universities, small businesses, and other commercial and nonprofit entities. The Congressional Research Service says, “One of the major factors in the reported success of the Bayh-Dole Act is the certainty it conveys concerning ownership of intellectual property.”

This law unleashed thousands of inventions that otherwise never would have been commercialized. Bayh-Dole has been a key component of growth and global leadership by research-intensive U.S. sectors.

From 1996-2000, university patent licensing added up to $1.9 trillion to the U.S. economy, contributed $1 trillion in U.S. gross domestic product, and supported 6.5 million jobs. Academic tech transfer led to almost 20,000 startups launching. Among Bayh-Dole inventions are: early detection of and protection against Osteoporosis, therapeutic for Sickle Cell Disease, semiconductor improvement from native oxide, telemedical retinal image screener, and a blight-resistant potato.
Bayh-Dole leverages the fact that moving an idea from concept to commercial product requires collaboration among different talents in an extensive R&D/commercialization process, backed by private investment. The benefits accrue to research institutions, researchers and inventors, commercialization partners, entrepreneurs, consumers, government at all levels, the economy, and America’s competitiveness.