March-In Rights: NASA Life-Support Patent Simulator

Bayh-Dole Timeline

Commercialization effort 55%

"Reasonable time" window 3.0 yr

Practical-application bar 60%

Simulated years / sec 1.0×

Contract Status

On track — exclusive title

Elapsed time

0.0 yr

Practical application

2.0%

March-in risk score

Patent exclusivity

100%

How it works

Under the Bayh-Dole Act (35 U.S.C. §§200-212), a contractor that patents an invention made under federal funding — the routine case for NASA-funded ECLSS (life-support) hardware — keeps title to the patent, but the government retains a permanent non-exclusive license, and march-in rights: if the contractor has not taken effective steps to achieve "practical application" within a reasonable time, the agency can force licensing to third parties.

dP/dt = k(E) · P · (1 − P)      k(E) = 0.15 + 0.9·E   (logistic commercialization)
dM/dt = +r·(t − R)·(Pth − P)    while t > R and P < Pth  (risk accrues)
dM/dt = −0.6·M                  otherwise                (risk decays once safe)
X(t)  = max(0, 1 − t/20)                                 (20-yr statutory term erosion)
X ← min(X, 0.15) permanently once M ≥ 100                (march-in invoked)

Commercialization effort E — investment/marketing intensity the contractor puts in; raises the logistic growth rate k of practical-application progress P.
Reasonable-time window R — how many years the funding agency allows before lagging progress starts accruing march-in risk.
Practical-application bar — the progress level P_th the agency treats as "available to the public on reasonable terms."
If the risk score M reaches 100, march-in is invoked: exclusivity collapses to the statutory license floor and outside licensees (shown as orbiting satellites) gain access — modelling NASA's actual, rarely-used but real, leverage over patents on technology it funded.

This is distinct from ordinary patent-term or freedom-to-operate mechanics elsewhere on the site: march-in is a government-use clawback tied to a contractor's own commercialization pace, unique to federally funded inventions like space life-support hardware.

ECLSS patent module Practical-application ring March-in risk glow

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