Long before Bob Dole abandoned his presidential dreams and became the unlikely spokesman for Viagra—a celebrated product of industrial research—he gave an even bigger lift to academic research. In 1980, Dole and fellow U.S. senator Birch Bayh sponsored the Bayh-Dole Act, legislation that gave blanket permission for universities to license and profit from the fruits of federally sponsored research—rights previously held by Uncle Sam. The Bayh-Dole act turned out to be Viagra for campus innovation. Universities that would previously have let their intellectual property lie fallow began filing for— and getting—patents at unprecedented rates.
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