Analysis and critique of Bayh-Dole Act on Intellectual Property Rights in Publicly Funded Research

Research is considered to be one of the elements for development in all countries. Policymakers strive to improve and increase it in terms of quality and quantity. They also aim to manage results of researches. For this reason, governments, directly and indirectly, attempt to carry out researches and resolve society needs in some fields in which private sectors cannot or are not interested in investing and being active. Publicly funded research in developing countries is more common and most researches are carried out by public funds. Ownership and the method of utilization of research results are main issues in this area. These issues are important not only due to intellectual property, creators and innovators’ rights, but also due to the management of rights for the best economic result for the benefit of societies. This issue has been discussed in some countries since several decades ago and the Bayh-Dole Act has been the first and the most important Act that is related to intellectual property in publicly funded research. Many countries have regarded the Bayh-Dole Act as a model for adopting their legislation. This article discusses features of the Bayh-Dole. By examining Iranian law in this context, it also proposes the points which should be considered by Iran as a developing country