The growth of patenting and licensing by US universities: an assessment ofthe effects of the Bayh-Dole act of 1980

Growth during the 1980s and 1990s in patenting and Licensing by American un iversities is frequently asserted to be a direct consequence of the Bayh-Do le Act of 1980. However, there has been little empirical analysis of the ef fects of this legislation. This paper uses previously unexploited data to c onsider the effects of Bayh-Dole at three leading universities: the Univers ity of California, Stanford University, and Columbia University. Two of the se universities (California and Stanford) were active in patenting and Lice nsing before Bayh-Dole, and one (Columbia) became active only after its pas sage. The evidence suggests that Bayh-Dole was only one of several importan t factors behind the rise of university patenting and licensing activity. B ayh-Dole also appears to have had little effect on the content of academic research at these universities. A comparison of these three universities re veals remarkable similarities in their patent and licensing portfolios 10 y ears after the passage of the Bayh-Dole Act. The concluding section raises several questions about the effects of Bayh-Dole and related policy shifts that are not addressed by this analysis but that deserve attention in futur e research. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.