WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — An 18-second clip of Vice President Kamala Harris shared on Facebook and X is gaining traction online.
“I will snatch their patent so that we will take over. Yes, we can do that," Harris said in the clip. "The question is do you have the will to do it? I have the will to do it.”
Verify viewer Ida asked if Harris would have the authority to revoke patents and for some context.
So, let’s Verify using a release from The White House, the Bayh-Dole Act and documentation from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
First, this clip is real.
It comes from C-SPAN coverage of a 2019 town hall in Iowa when then U.S. Senator Kamala Harris was running for the Democratic nomination for president.
But here’s what the clip leaves out.
“A lot of drugs, prescription medication, was born out of federal funding for the research and development for that drug. Your taxpayer dollars," Harris said. "So, for any drug where they fail to play by our rules and if that drug came about because of federal funding for what’s called R and D, research and development, I will snatch their patent.”
Harris was engaged in a conversation about prescription drug prices, claiming she could take away patents from companies who don’t “play by our rules.”
The government funds drug research with taxpayer dollars and helps non-profits and businesses patent all kinds of products under the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980.
The act includes circumstances in which the government can “march in.”
A December 2023 release from the White House says, “When an invention is made using taxpayer funds, under certain circumstances march-in authority under the Bayh-Dole Act enables the federal government to license the invention to another party.”
But, that doesn’t mean a patent can be taken away based on how much a company wants to charge consumers for their product.
Last year, the National Institute of Standards and Technology sought public comment on a new framework that would allow a march in because of price something the Biden Administration supported, but that draft has not been adopted.
So as of now, no, the federal government cannot remove a federally funded patent based on price.