Ep. 109 - Joe Allen

Joe Allen served on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee for Senator Birch Bayh (D-IN) securing passage of the Bayh-Dole Act which fostered R&D partnerships between universities and U.S. industry.  The Economist Technology Quarterly called this law “possibly the most inspired piece of legislation to be enacted in America over the past half century.” On leaving the Senate staff, Joe was Executive Director of Intellectual Property Owners, Inc. (IPO) where he worked to create the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit before going to the U.S. Department of Commerce where he became the Director of the Office of Technology Commercialization. He was instrumental in the passage of major laws allowing U.S. industry to perform joint R&D with federal laboratories. Allen’s office oversaw Executive branch implementation of the Bayh-Dole and Federal Technology Transfer Acts and related presidential policy directives. He helped negotiate intellectual property rights provisions for major international science and technology agreements. Joe then became President of the National Technology Transfer Center established by Congress to promote industry/federal laboratory R&D partnerships. He is now the Executive Director of the Bayh-Dole Coalition, a non-profit organization composed of universities, companies, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and others who are committed to celebrating and protecting the landmark law. Joe writes a monthly column for IPWatchdog on Bayh-Dole related issues.