Government vs. the Federal Employee: Who Owns the Patent

Abstract

Pharmaceutical companies frequently offer federal employees conditional gifts for research purposes. One condition often requested by pharmaceutical company attorneys is the exclusive right to any ideas or inventions developed at the federal facility by the federal employee working with products or equipment donated by the pharmaceutical company. Unfortunately for the pharmaceutical company, this is not allowable under federal regulations, which supersede any such contractual condition. In this column, I will discuss the evolution of the patent laws governing federal employees and the rationale behind them. I will also explain the circumstance under which federal employees can hold patents to products they develop.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 12, 2018
Accession Number
AD1064300

Entities

People

  • Jeffrey Green

Organizations

  • United States Department of Defense

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Department Of Defense
  • Executives
  • Federal Law
  • Government Employees
  • Governments
  • Health Care
  • Inventions
  • Law
  • National Governments
  • Patents
  • President (United States)
  • Regulations
  • Standards
  • Technical Information Centers
  • Technology Transfer
  • United States Government

Fields of Study

  • Business

Readers

  • Defense Technology Research and Development.
  • Government Contracting/Procurement.
  • Oncology