35 U.S.C. § 200
Section 200 · Policy and objective
This is § 6 of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 25 court decisions — leading case Progressive Animal Welfare Society v. University of Washington (1994)
Most recently applied in University of South Florida Board of Trustees v. United States (February 2024)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
It is the policy and objective of the Congress to use the patent system to promote the utilization of inventions arising from federally supported research or development; to encourage maximum participation of small business firms in federally supported research and development efforts; to promote collaboration between commercial concerns and nonprofit organizations, including universities; to ensure that inventions made by nonprofit organizations and small business firms are used in a manner to promote free competition and enterprise without unduly encumbering future research and discovery; to promote the commercialization and public availability of inventions made in the United States by United States industry and labor; to ensure that the Government obtains sufficient rights in federally supported inventions to meet the needs of the Government and protect the public against nonuse or unreasonable use of inventions; and to minimize the costs of administering policies in this area.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
2000—Pub. L. 106–404 substituted “enterprise without unduly encumbering future research and discovery;” for “enterprise;”.
Effective Date
Chapter effective July 1, 1981, but implementing regulations authorized to be issued earlier, see section 8(f) of Pub. L. 96–517, set out as an Effective Date of 1980 Amendment note under section 41 of this title.