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Galactic Foresight Required: NASA's Proposed Rule Limits Advance Waivers to Yet-to-Be-Conceived Inventions

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 10.23.14

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 aNASA contract, which, given the unpredictable nature of R&D efforts, may not cover the inventions that the contractor actually develops.


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Client Alert | 2 min read | 04.29.25

President Trump Issues Executive Order Deprioritizing Disparate Impact Theory of Discrimination

On April 23, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order, Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy, declaring it the policy of the United States “to eliminate the use of disparate-impact liability in all contexts to the maximum degree possible to avoid violating the constitution, Federal civil rights laws, and basic American ideals.” The order reasons that “disparate impact liability all but requires individuals and businesses to consider race and engage in racial balancing to avoid potentially crippling legal liability.”...