WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is threatening to take over hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Harvard University patents and other inventions whose creation was funded by taxpayers, according to a Friday letter reviewed by The Post.
In a missive to university President Alan Garber, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick demanded a full accounting of the federal money that went to the Ivy League school’s patents by Sept. 5.
The White House’s latest attack on Harvard is based on the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, which forces inventors to disclose which federal grants resulted in patents and submit timely reports about how the patents are being used — with some provisions for “products based on the inventions” to ensure the items are “manufactured substantially within the US,” a senior administration official said.
The law also states that Americans should reap the benefits from such inventions.
Lutnick accused the Cambridge, Mass., university of having “failed to live up to its obligations to the American taxpayer” with its patent authority and announced the Commerce Department was “initiating the ‘march-in’ process under the Bayh-Dole Act pursuant to which the U.S. government intends to to grant third-party licenses to Harvard’s patents or take title where Harvard has failed timely to disclose or elect title to inventions.”
Harvard officials have already been discussing paying a $500 million fine to the Trump administration to return more than $2.6 billion in rescinded grant funding.
Most of the taxpayer money went toward scientific and medical research, with the university arguing in a federal lawsuit filed against the administration that its constitutional rights had been violated by the revocation of public dollars.
“This unprecedented action is yet another retaliatory effort targeting Harvard for defending its rights and freedom,” a Harvard spokesperson told The Post Friday.
“Technologies and patents developed at Harvard are life-saving and industry-redefining. We are fully committed to complying with the Bayh-Dole Act and ensuring that the public is able to access and benefit from the many innovations that arise out of federally funded research at Harvard.”
President Trump suggested last month that the school “wants to settle” their lawsuit against his administration after Columbia University’s funding was restored upon shelling out a $200 million payment to settle antisemitic discrimination complaints on campus.
Harvard enjoys a massive $53 billion endowment — more than three times Columbia’s $14.8 billion.
The Trump-Columbia deal returned $400 million in grant fundingto the school in exchange for the fine, the appointment of an independent monitor to assess civil rights violations and submission of mandatory reports on the school’s compliance with Titles VI, VII and IX.
Disciplinary issues — which had roiled the Morningside Heights campus after anti-Israel demonstrators set up encampments and invaded libraries and academic spaces — are also now under the purview of the provost’s office.
Previously, the university’s faculty senate had doled out disciplinary penalties.
More than $20 million was also paid out to Jewish employees at Columbia who had been discriminated against.
Harvard has stood its ground in its case and maintained that the Trump funding freeze infringes on the university’s academic freedom — and officials at the school have balked at the prospect of having an independent monitor, according to the New York Times.
Attorneys for the university have argued that the rescinded grants violate its First Amendment rights.
Boston US District Judge Allison Burroughs, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, indicated she agreed with the claims during a hearing last month.
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