Galactic Foresight Required: NASA's Proposed Rule Limits Advance Waivers to Yet-to-Be-Conceived Inventions
Oct.23.2014
Earlier this month, NASA proposed to amend its patent regulations to require contractors requesting an advance waiver of the government's domestic rights in inventions made under a NASA contract to identify with specificity any inventions or classes of inventions that the contractor "believes will be made under the contract." Thus, in order to obtain an effective waiver, the contractor must predict what "inventions or classes of inventions" the contractor might make under a NASA contract, which, given the unpredictable nature of R&D efforts, may not cover the inventions that the contractor actually develops.
For more information, please contact the professional(s) listed below, or your regular Crowell & Moring contact.