Joe Allen served on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee for Senator Birch Bayh (D-IN) securing passage of the Bayh-Dole Act which fostered R&D partnerships between universities and U.S. industry. The Economist Technology Quarterly called this law “possibly the most inspired piece of legislation to be enacted in America over the past half century.” On leaving the Senate staff, Joe became the Executive Director of Intellectual Property Owners, Inc. (IPO) where he helped to create the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit before going to the U.S. Department of Commerce where he became the Director of the Office of Technology Commercialization.
At the department, he was instrumental in the passage of the Federal Technology Transfer Act which allows U.S. industry to cooperative R&D agreements with federal laboratories. Allen’s office oversaw Executive branch implementation of the Bayh-Dole and Federal Technology Transfer Acts and related presidential policy directives. He helped establish the Interagency Committee on Technology Transfer and chaired its working group. Joe also helped negotiate intellectual property rights provisions for major international science and technology agreements.
Joe then became President of the National Technology Transfer Center established by Congress to promote industry/federal laboratory R&D partnerships. He is now the Executive Director of the Bayh-Dole Coalition, a non-profit organization composed of universities, companies, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and others who are committed to celebrating and protecting the landmark law. He is a frequent writer on innovation issues and was inducted into the IPWatchdog Masters Hall of Fame in 2026.
