Stanford Bayh-Dole case handed down by Sup. Ct. today

BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD
JUNIOR UNIVERSITY v. ROCHE MOLECULAR
SYSTEMS, INC., ET AL.
Syllabus:
The Bayh-Dole Act does not automatically vest title to federally-funded inventions in federal contractors or authorize contractors to unilaterally take title to such inventions.
The Court’s construction of the Act is also reflected in the common practice of contractors, who generally obtain assignments from their employees, and of agencies that fund federal contractors, who typically expect those contractors to obtain assignments. With effective assignments, federally funded inventions become “subject inventions” and the Act as a practical matter works pretty much the way Stan-ford says it should. The only significant difference is that it does so without violence to the basic patent law principle that inventors own their inventions.