Understanding the importance of Bayh-Dole.

The article presents information about several papers about the U.S. Bayh-Dole Act, that appeared in different publications recently. The paper "The Law of Unintended Consequences," written by Clinton Leaf and published in the September 19, 2005 issue of the journal "Fortune," states that in 2002, North American academic institutions spent over $200 million in litigation--more than five times the amount spent in 1991. According to the paper "Innovation's Golden Goose," published in the December 2002 Technology Quarterly of the journal "The Economist," possibly the most inspired piece of legislation to be enacted in America over the past half-century was the Bayh-Dole act of 1980.