STAT December 15, 2023
The Bayh-Dole Act is widely credited with kickstarting a new era of American innovation involving the launch of 17,000 startup companies and some 495,000 inventions.
Yet despite this success, Bayh-Dole now finds itself vulnerable — and from a surprising source.
Back in 1980, a young senator from Delaware named Joe Biden was among those who supported Bayh-Dole in the Senate Judiciary Committee. His “yes” contributed to the bill’s 91-4 approval in the Senate. Later in his Senate career, Biden voted against then-Rep. Bernie Sanders’ attempt to amend the law so the government could second-guess the pricing of successfully commercialized inventions. As president, his administration issued one of the strongest denials of attempts to misuse the law for the same purpose.
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