Administration is Proposing the Confiscation of Private IP that Used Federal Funding

Entrepreneurs and businesses alike are sounding the alarm on a Biden Administration proposal to empower government bureaucrats with the ability to “march-in” and confiscate a company’s intellectual property (IP) if it received any federal funding for research, including in conjunction with universities. This is nothing more than a backdoor move to control prices, which they are doing under the guise of the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act.

Why it matters: For over four decades, the bipartisan Bayh-Dole Act has fostered innovation by providing universities and small businesses with the tools to translate federal funding into tangible inventions and products that benefit the public.  Exercising march-in rights will not lower prices. Americans would see higher prices and a decline in the innovation that creates the products and technologies we rely on.

How March-in Abuse Impacts American Innovation:

• Government seizure of business assets: If enacted, this proposal could empower unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., to seize assets from private businesses, posing a grave threat to their stability and autonomy.

• U.S. leadership in critical technologies threatened: Seizing private property puts America’s dominance in vital technologies at risk, endangering our position as a global innovator and potentially compromising national security.

• Bipartisan innovation policy in jeopardy: By tampering with the landmark bipartisan Bayh-Dole Act, these changes would sow seeds of uncertainty, eroding the foundation that has long fostered American innovation and economic growth and ending public-private collaboration as we know it.

• A hostile environment for U.S. innovation: The prospect of expanded government powers casts a shadow over the entrepreneurial landscape, creating an atmosphere of doubt and hindering the innovative spirit that drives progress.