PRIA Logo™
Title 35, PatentsRelease 119-102

§200 Policy and Objective

Title 35 › PART II — PATENTABILITY OF INVENTIONS AND GRANT OF PATENTS › CHAPTER 18 — PATENT RIGHTS IN INVENTIONS MADE WITH FEDERAL ASSISTANCE › § 200

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

Use the patent system to help turn inventions from federally funded research into useful, available products. It must boost small business participation and teamwork with nonprofits and universities, make sure nonprofit and small-business inventions keep competition and don’t block future research, promote U.S. commercialization and public access, give the Government enough rights to meet its needs and stop nonuse or unfair use, and keep costs low.

Full Legal Text

Title 35, §200

Patents, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

It is the policy and objective of the Congress to use the patent system to promote the utilization of inventions arising from federally supported research or development; to encourage maximum participation of small business firms in federally supported research and development efforts; to promote collaboration between commercial concerns and nonprofit organizations, including universities; to ensure that inventions made by nonprofit organizations and small business firms are used in a manner to promote free competition and enterprise without unduly encumbering future research and discovery; to promote the commercialization and public availability of inventions made in the United States by United States industry and labor; to ensure that the Government obtains sufficient rights in federally supported inventions to meet the needs of the Government and protect the public against nonuse or unreasonable use of inventions; and to minimize the costs of administering policies in this area.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2000—Pub. L. 106–404 substituted “enterprise without unduly encumbering future research and discovery;” for “enterprise;”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

Section effective July 1, 1981, but implementing

Regulations

authorized to be issued earlier, see section 8(f) of Pub. L. 96–517, set out as an

Effective Date

of 1980 Amendment note under section 41 of this title.

Short Title

This chapter is popularly known as the Bayh-Dole Act. section 6(a) of Pub. L. 96–517, Dec. 12, 1980, 94 Stat. 3018, which enacted this chapter, is also popularly known as the Bayh-Dole Act and also as the University and Small Business Patent Procedures Act of 1980. For complete classification of section 6(a) of Pub. L. 96–517 to the Code, see Tables.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

35 U.S.C. § 200

Title 35, Patents

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102