Bayh Dole incentivizes so-called safe research for the sole purpose of securing patents – this trades off with pathbreaking innovation needed currently

[Christopher J. Jr., et al. "The Hidden Cost of University Patents." Berkeley Business Law Journal, vol. 21, no. 1, 2024, pp. 203-249. HeinOnline -tm]

The Bayh-Dole Act has been successful in encouraging universities to pursue patents. However, it has also carried unintended consequences. It has encouraged universities, and university researchers, to over-invest in the kind of research that is likely to produce an innovation that could yield a patent at the expense of research that does not result in the same outcome but still pushes the frontiers of innovation. Moreover, universities are not commercial entities with specialized knowledge of what kinds of patents are more valuable to actual commercial firms. As such, they continue to pursue patents for their research regardless of its commercial value. Although a few university-produced patents hold considerable commercial value, most are effectively worthless. This, of course, adds to patent thickets and makes university patents a gamble, not always a worthwhile investment.