Senator Birch Bayh
Partner, Venable LLP, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

After a quarter century of what by most objective standards has been an exceptional success, the Bayh-Dole law is under increasing attack today. Most of the attacks have come from individuals who have little experience with the comprehensive nature of how the law is implemented. They do not know what Bayh-Dole does and does not do, and why certain features were incorporated into the law. Equally important, these nay-sayers have no appreciation for the factors that motivated our efforts to develop this legislation in the first place. Most unfortunate of all, these modern-day experts in technology transfer apparently do not understand the basic factors upon which our nation’s free enterprise system is based.