An Analysis of the Evolution of Government Patent Policy in Research and Development Contracts
Masters thesis — Naval Postgraduate School, 1981. Full text: https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA1027131
Arguments
An Analysis of the Evolution of Government Patent Policy in Research and Development Contracts
The 1980 compromise (the Bayh-Dole era) is the legal bedrock under today's fights over who owns AI, semiconductor, and biotech breakthroughs paid for with public money.
Decades of post-WWII debate over who owns inventions from federally funded R&D produced no uniform government patent policy; the 1980 patent and trademark amendments were a compromise between the "title" school (government keeps ownership) and the "license" school (contractors keep it, government takes a license), after executive, legislative, and judicial efforts all failed to unify the rules.
Why it matters
The 1980 compromise (the Bayh-Dole era) is the legal bedrock under today's fights over who owns AI, semiconductor, and biotech breakthroughs paid for with public money.
Use when: When no one owns the rules, a workable compromise beats another decade of debate — the 1980 amendments ended 35 years of stalemate by splitting the difference.