Founders Legal News
It has become increasingly significant for companies to keep abreast of data compliance trends to comply with data compliance-related policies and regulations in China. With the start of 2023, reviewing the regulations related to data transfer released in China over the last year is essential. These regulations may impact multinational companies investing in China and companies involved in cross-border business.
Under typical Phase 1 contracts with the Department of Defense (DoD), such as the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), default ownership of domestic and international intellectual property rights belong to the Contractor. However, if the Contractor fails to report any inventions to the contracting officer within two months of preparing the corresponding patent applications, the Contractor risks losing ownership of those inventions.
Funding agencies have taken a very narrow approach when interpreting the four categories listed above from 35 U.S.C. § 203. Accordingly, contractors should understand how march-in rights function in theory, but it is historically unlikely to assume an agency would exercise this power without further legislation. Ultimately, contractors should focus on furthering their research and ensuring proper disclosure practices to their funding agencies, as it is historically unlikely that a funding agency will exercise their march-in rights and compel contractors to license any of their subject inventions.
Once a public disclosure is made, the public disclosure bars the filing of a patent application in almost all jurisdictions. However, in the United States, there is a 12 month grace period starting from the public disclosure to file a patent application. A patent filing in the US does not count as prior art if we make a US filing before a public disclosure. Therefore, we have two routes to file applications in other countries.
