More than 40 years ago, if a university or government agency engaged in research made a discovery, it was likely to sit on the shelf. The issues of intellectual property were murky. How to compensate the inventor? Who owns the patent? But in 1980, those issues were sorted out with the Bayh-Dole Act, a bipartisan law that allowed those discoveries to see the light of day.

That work brought consumers warfarin, a powerful blood thinner used by millions; the honey crisp apple, enjoyed by millions; and even helped bring Covid 19 vaccines to the public faster. By determining how ownership of Intellectual Property is managed and how inventors are compensated cleared a path to market for dozens of innovations for agriculture, the pharmaceutical industry and other areas to move from lab to market.

Yet there's a threat to Bayh-Dole, coming from groups who believe the act somehow influences drug prices, and there's talk of weakening the act. Fran O'Leary, editor of Wisconsin Agriculturist, got wind of this policy move and wrote about it recently. We talked to her about the implications of weakening the act and what that might mean for agricultural innovation.

Give it a listen.

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