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Supreme Court Rules on Scope of Federal Contractors' Rights in Federally Funded Inventions

Client Alert | 1 min read | 06.07.11

On June 6, 2011, the United States Supreme Court, by a 7-2 margin, held in Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University v. Roche Molecular Systems, Inc., No. 09-1159, that the term "subject invention" in the Bayh-Dole Act (35 U.S.C. § 200, et seq.), the statute that allocates certain rights in federally funded "subject invention[s]," includes only inventions for which the contractor has obtained a valid assignment from the employee inventor(s), and, therefore, that a contractor (and presumably the government) cannot obtain rights to an invention under the Bayh-Dole Act absent such an assignment. In so holding, the Court stated that the Bayh-Dole Act "simply assures contractors that they may keep title to whatever it is they already have" – which serves as a reminder to federal contractors desiring title to their employees' inventions to obtain valid assignments.

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Client Alert | 4 min read | 07.06.26

House Advances Bipartisan Kids' Online Safety Bill, But Senate Showdown Looms

On June 22, 2026, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) and Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) announced a bipartisan agreement on a revised version of the KIDS Act (H.R. 7757), marking the most significant congressional advance on children's online safety legislation in years. The House passed H.R. 7757, as amended, on June 29, 2026, setting up a potential showdown with the Senate. The revised KIDS Act consolidates elements of 14 pending legislative proposals — including KOSA and COPPA 2.0, both of which have previously passed the Senate and cleared the House Energy and Commerce Committee — into a single, comprehensive framework. The announcement, however, was met immediately with objections from Senate sponsors and civil liberties groups, underscoring the difficult legislative road ahead....

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