Event

Thursday, April 4, 2024 1:00 – 2:00 PM ET

Video Webinar

Event Summary

America’s global technological dominance is at risk. China openly boasts it will become the # 1 economic and military superpower as it produces 40% more in critical industries like semiconductors, receives twice as many patents, and just invested nearly $52 billion in science and technology R&D projects for 2024. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is being urged to adopt policies that undermine the system that drives American innovation.

The administration recently proposed a draft framework to radically reinterpret the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 so the government can impose price controls on products based on federally-funded R&D in the name of controlling drug prices. Forced to admit that this alone cannot work, those behind this ill-conceived scheme now urge the administration to also misuse the authorities of Section 1498 of the U.S. Code so the government can seize privately-funded patents so they can be copied. This would not be limited to drugs but would apply to all fields of technology.

These proposals would:

1. Undermine confidence in America’s intellectual property system;
2. Discourage private sector commercialization of federally-funded technologies;
3. Jeopardize public and private sector R&D partnerships which drive American innovation;
4. Destroy incentives needed for start-up company formation;
5. Lead to the development of fewer taxpayer-funded inventions;
6. Threaten our economic growth.

On Thursday, April 4, 2024, the Bayh-Dole Coalition and the Licensing Executives Society hosted a webinar on these two threats and their consequences for U.S. taxpayers, businesses, and the economy at-large.

Read the full transcript of the video webinar here.

Joseph P. Allen (Moderator)

Joe is the executive director of the Bayh-Dole Coalition. As a professional staffer on the Senate Judiciary Committee to Sen. Birch Bayh (D-IN), he played a key role in the successful passage of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 and its subsequent amendments. He later served as the director of the Office of Technology Commercialization at the Department of Commerce, which oversaw the implementation of Bayh-Dole and chaired the Interagency Committee on Technology Transfer.

Brian O’Shaughnessy

Brian O’Shaughnessy is chair of the IP Transactions and Licensing Group at Dinsmore, a national, full-service law firm with one of the nation’s most prolific IP groups, and Board Chair of the Bayh-Dole Coalition. A past president of the Licensing Executives Society of USA and Canada, he continues to serve LES as senior vice president for public policy. Brian earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Department of Chemistry, Rochester Institute of Technology, and a J.D. from Syracuse University, College of Law.

Adam Mossoff

Adam Mossoff is a professor of law at the Antonin Scalia Law School and chair of the Forum for Intellectual Property at the Hudson Institute. His research in intellectual property and patent law has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and countless federal agencies. Adam holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Michigan and Columbia University, respectively, and a J.D. with honors from the University of Chicago Law School.

Jennifer G. Young

Jennifer Grundy Young serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the Technology Councils of North America (TECNA). TECNA represents more than 60 technology trade organizations from across the United States and Canada that collectively represent more than 22,000 technology-related businesses.

Prior to joining TECNA, Jennifer served as the Director of Policy and Public Affairs for Life Sciences PA, a statewide association that advocates on behalf of Pennsylvania’s diverse life sciences-related industries. She also served the members of the Pittsburgh Technology Council for nearly 12 years and worked directly with tech companies and other community leaders as a field representative for a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Bob Schmidt

Mr. Robert N. Schmidt founded and is the chairman of Cleveland Medical Devices, Orbital Research, NeuroWave Systems, Great Lakes NeuroTechnologies Inc., and Flocel Inc. Schmidt received his BS degree in Mechanical Engineering and his MS from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; his MBA from the Univ. of Utah, and his Juris Doctor (81) from Cleveland State University. He is a licensed professional engineer (Ohio, 76) and an attorney (Ohio, 81, US Supreme Court, and US Patent and Trademark Office, 82).

Mr. Schmidt has 56 US patents, controls over 300 patent assets, and has led two companies onto the Inc. 500. He is the only person to have been awarded by Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School and Inc. Magazine the “Inc. Inner City 100 Award” for the fastest growing companies 7 times in the first 7 years of the award.