Rights to Federally Funded Inventions and Licensing of Government Owned Inventions

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) requests comments on proposed revisions to regulations that would further the Return on Investment (ROI) Initiative for Unleashing American Innovation. The proposed revisions to "Rights to Inventions Made by Nonprofit Organizations and Small Business Firms under Government Grants, Contracts, and Cooperative Agreements" and "Licensing of Government-Owned Inventions" make technical corrections; reorganize certain subsections; remove outdated and/or unnecessary sections; institute a reporting requirement on Federal agencies; and provide clarifications on definitions, communications, scope of march-in rights, filing of provisional patent applications, electronic filing, the purpose of royalties on government licenses, and the processes for granting exclusive, co-exclusive and partially exclusive licenses and for appeals. NIST intends to hold a webinar regarding the proposed changes and information on that webinar will be available to the public at https://www.nist.gov/tpo/bayh-dole.