Janet M. MacLeod, Ph.D. was featured in the Technology Transfer Tactics article, "Faculty Ire over IP Assignment Illustrates Continuing Struggle in Wake of Stanford v. Roche." Full text can be found in the November 2014, issue, but a synopsis is below.
The University of Pittsburgh is just one college who attempted to update its intellectual property assignment processes with an eye directly on the ruling in Stanford v. Roche.
Attorneys who work with tech transfer offices have seen the same thing. "Our university clients had policies in place for the ownership of inventions made by their faculty and students before the decision in Stanford v. Roche, but the decision certainly prompted them to review those policies," explained Fox Partner, Janet M. MacLeod, Ph.D.
She added that, "before Stanford it was widely assumed in the university technology transfer community that the Bayh-Dole Act automatically granted federal contractors, including universities, full title to inventions developed at their institutions in whole or in part with federal funds."
The Supreme Court thought differently, "so effective assignment agreements from the university's inventors to the university are necessary for the university to take title to the inventions."
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