Department of Energy (DOE) FOIA Requests

  • On October 9, 2009, KEI sent a request to the Department of Energy, regarding the Bayh Dole Act, with the following request:

    “In order to conduct our investigation and serve the public interest, KEI requests all documents, including email, letters, faxes and other communications, memorandums, power point presentations, and any other information which addresses the use, request to use or the possibility of using U.S. government rights in patents under provisions of the Bayh-Dole Act, including but not limited to possible or actual exercise of the right to a nonexclusive royalty-free license to use an invention, or the exercise March-in rights. This request also includes any cases where the agency has used or considered using the process laid out in the Commerce Regulations 37 C.F.R. 401 to resolve a dispute about the use of the invention. The time period of our request dates from 12 December 1980 to the present.”

    On November 2009, KEI followed up with a call with the FOIA officer. We were informed that “There is one case where a request was made, and where formal consideration of the request was undertake”. On June 2010, KEI received several hundreds of pages concerning a March in Request that was made by a pharmaceutical company to DOE. KEI is currently analyzing this documentation.