The Trump administration has threatened to take ownership of some of Harvard University’s patents.

In a letter to Harvard president Alan Garber, posted online on X (formerly Twitter), commerce secretary Howard Lutnick accused Harvard of breaching its legal and contractual requirements tied to federally funded research programs and patents.

According to the New York Times, the Harvard patents at issue are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The letter states that

We believe that Harvard has failed to live up to its obligations to the American taxpayer and is in breach of the statutory, regulatory, and contractual requirements tied to Harvard federally funded research programs and intellectual property arising therefrom, including patents.

The letter states that the government is investigating several alleged failures of Harvard to comply with federal laws:

• Failures to comply with the requirements for timely disclosure and election of title under 35 U.S.C. § 202(c)(1) and 37 C.F.R § 401.14(d)(1)(i);
• Failures to comply with the preference for United States industry as required by 35 U.S.C. 204 and 37 C.F.R 401.14(i); and
• Failures to take effective steps to achieve practical application of subject inventions as required by 35 U.S.C. § 203(a)(1) and 37 C.F.R § 401.14(j)(1).

As The Guardian reported,

Lutnick also said the commerce department had begun a “march-in” process under the federal Bayh-Dole Act that could let the government take ownership of the patents or grant licenses.

In his X post, Lutnick wrote, “Taxpayers deserve the benefit of the bargain. If Harvard won’t honor the Bayh-Dole Act, then we will find someone who will.”

The Bayh–Dole Act or Patent and Trademark Law Amendments Act is a 1980 law allowing ownership by contractors of inventions arising from federal government-funded research. 

Before Bayh–Dole, the US government had accumulated 28,000 patents, but fewer than 5% of those patents were commercially licensed.

The Act was designed to decentralize control of federally funded inventions, giving the responsibility and authority to commercialize inventions to the institution or company receiving a grant, while imposing certain responsibilities on the government, the inventor, and the public.

The federal government retains “march-in rights” that allow federal agencies to take ownership of an entity’s intellectual property if it fails to meet the law’s requirements.

The letter gives the university until September 5 to provide a comprehensive list of all patents it has received stemming from federally funded research grants and to provide information to show its compliance with Bayh-Dole.

According to the Harvard Crimson,

A Harvard spokesperson slammed the letter as a “retaliatory effort” to punish the University for defending its academic freedom.

“Technologies and patents developed at Harvard are life-saving and industry-redefining,” the spokesperson wrote. “We are fully committed to complying with the Bayh-Dole Act and ensuring that the public is able to access and benefit from the many innovations that arise out of federally funded research at Harvard.”

The Crimson reports that “Harvard held more than 58,000 patents as of July 1, 2024, and maintains more than 900 active technology licenses with industry partners.”

According to the Crimson,

Harvard received $684 in federal funding in fiscal year 2024 — though the University has lost nearly all access to federal research grants and contracts under the Trump administration’s massive funding freeze.

Also, says the Crimson,

The Friday probe is the latest in the White House’s steadily widening campaign against Harvard. While the conflict began with April over allegations of campus antisemitism and with the suspension of more than $2 billion in federal research funding, the administration has since accused the University of a grab bag of misconduct — from failing to provide adequate financial disclosures to investors, to colluding with other Ivy League universities on financial aid practices, to training officials from the Chinese Communist Party.

This appears to be the first time that patent rights have been used as leverage/ammunition in the Trump administration’s conflicts with universities.

As the New York Post reports,

Harvard officials have already been discussing paying a $500 million fine to the Trump administration to return more than $2.6 billion in rescinded grant funding.

Columbia University’s federal funding was recently restored after it paid $200 million payment to settle complaints about antisemitic discrimination on campus.

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