...and, it seems, I was mistaken about patent law. Initially, my understanding was that patents are not "owned" by the Federal Govt, but are granted to individuals or companies. I was wrong.
The federal government, through the operation of government-owned research facilities, research grants to universities and procurement contracts with private industry, funds almost 50% of the national R&D effort. Because of this enormous funding, the federal government has the most United States patent rights. It is estimated that the government has title to over 30,000 patents and annually files several thousand new applications. The government also has rights to nonexclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free licenses in thousands of patents. In addition, the government has a myriad of other patent rights. Examples include march-in rights, rights to require the owner to license others, rights to require licensing of background patents, rights to approve assignments, rights to limit terms of license agreements and reversionary ownership rights.
One of the most complicated problems associated with government funding of R&D is the allocation of patent rights among the government, government employees, universities, university employees and government contractors and subcontractors. This allocation is a complex determination that is controlled by federal laws, executive orders, federal acquisition regulations, and the regulations and policies of over 25 government agencies.
The allocation of patent rights between the government and its employees is covered by Executive Order 10096. Unlike private industry, government employees do not have employment contracts. The order has been in effect since 1950 and was created to provide a uniform method of allocating patent rights between the agencies and their employees. Most of the patents owned by the government are obtained under the provisions of this order.
The main section of the executive order provides that the government shall obtain all rights to any invention made by an employee if any one of the following conditions applies: the invention is made during working hours; the invention is made using either government facilities, equipment, etc., or is made with the help of another government employee who is on official duty; or the invention relates to the official duties of the inventor.
http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/matters/matters-9004.html
When I was married, my ex, who is a professor, told me that anything he or others in his dept. invented would be the property of the University, not the inventors, because of patent laws. But the same held true if he worked in academia or private industry. People doing theoretical work have never been granted rights to their research. fwiw. Anyway, this article talks about that situation, too.
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