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4h ago

Lutnick Pushes Plan for U.S. Cut of University Patent Revenues

The push tests Bayh-Dole by extending the administration's profit-sharing model from industry to university inventions.

Members of the Trump administration, such as Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, have insisted that businesses and foreign countries will be footing the bill, rather than American families.
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Overview

  • Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the government wants a share of revenue from patents created with federal funds at major universities.
  • He confirmed sending Harvard a demand for a comprehensive list of federally funded patents and said similar outreach to the University of California system is next.
  • Lutnick argued taxpayers should receive “half the benefit” from such patents, suggesting the proceeds could help finance Social Security and reduce deficits.
  • The proposal challenges the Bayh-Dole framework that lets universities retain ownership of federally funded inventions and could reshape research commercialization incentives.
  • Lutnick cited recent deals as precedent, including a roughly 10% federal stake in Intel and a 15% share of Nvidia’s AI chip revenue in China, along with broader White House pressure on colleges over admissions, DEI policies and antisemitism.