Rights Reconsidered

doi:10.1126/science.297.5585.1255b

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ScienceScope

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has put on hold a controversial plan to curb foreign grantees from patenting and licensing their discoveries. Last March, NIH announced that it would limit foreign grantees to patenting discoveries only in their home nations. To make sure U.S. taxpayers reaped the benefits of federally funded research, all other rights would be held by U.S. collaborators or NIH. But critics--including the U.S.-based Association of University Technology Managers and Australian science officials--said the policy would hinder collaboration and discourage the development of discoveries (Science, 28 June, p. 2316).

On 8 August, NIH backed off, saying that it will take another year to "explore more fully the ramifications" of the policy, which was slated to take effect at the end of the year. "There's no point in rushing," says NIH extramural research chief Wendy Baldwin. Her office will consider arguments that, for example, most drugs end up being manufactured in the United States, so the profits end up there, too.