NIST RELEASES BAYH-DOLE FINAL RULE ON MARCH-IN RIGHTS
Last week, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released a revised Bayh-Dole Act final rule on rights to federally funded inventions and licensing of government-owned inventions. In this final rule, NIST did not adopt a provision on exercising march-in rights solely based on product pricing. Comments on this provision ranged from general support with requests for additional clarification so that the federal government would not march-in based on product pricing to stating that the provision should be removed.
The same day, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Commerce announced a joint review of its march-in authority as stated in the Bayh-Dole Act. This interagency working group will create a framework for the development and implementation of the march-in provision, providing clarification on criteria and processes for exercising such rights.