Patenting Public-Funded Research for Technology Transfer: A Conceptual-Empirical Synthesis of US Evidence and Lessons for India

Amit Ray and Sabyasachi Saha ()
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Sabyasachi Saha: Indian Council for Research on International Economic Rela

Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, New Delhi Working Papers from Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, New Delhi, India

Abstract: The question of protecting intellectual property rights by academic inventors wasnever seriously contemplated until the introduction of the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980 inthe US. The Act allowed universities to retain patent rights over inventions arising outof federally-funded research and to license those patents exclusively or nonexclusivelyat their discretion. This particular legislation was a response to thegrowing concern over the fact that federally funded inventions in the US were notreaching the market place. In this paper, we present a critical review of the USexperience after the Bayh-Dole Act and argue that the evidence is far from beingunambiguous. We discuss the debate surrounding the Act – the extent to which it wassuccessful in achieving its objectives, the unintended consequences, if any, and moregenerally, the effectiveness of IPR as a vehicle of technology transfer fromuniversities. We also discuss the limited evidence on Bayh-Dole type legislationsintroduced in other countries. A new legislation, along the lines of the US Bayh-DoleAct – The Protection and Utilisation of Public Funded IP Bill, 2008 – is presentlybefore the Indian parliament. The paper presents an Indian perspective against thebackdrop of the US experience in an attempt to draw concrete lessons for India.

Keywords: Bayh-Dole Act; public-funded research; universities; patents; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 I28 O31 O34 O38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 56 Pages
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: PATENTING PUBLIC-FUNDED RESEARCH FOR TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER: A Conceptual-Empirical Synthesis of US Evidence and Lessons for India (2010)
Working Paper: Patenting Public-Funded Research For Technology Transfer: A Conceptual-Empirical Synthesis of US Evidence and Lessons for India (2010)
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