What happens when a contract, the Patent Act, and the Bayh-Dole Act purport to give ownership in the same patent to the government, a university, and a university researcher, all at the same time? The US Supreme Court recently answered this question in Stanford Univ. v Roche Molecular Sys., Inc., 131 S. Ct. 2188 (2011). The Court’s opinion highlights the importance of protecting and delineating IP ownership rights in federally funded research projects by using well-drafted and unambiguous ownership and assignment agreements. The Court’s decision also stokes the policy debate between commercial protection of IP on the one hand, and on the other hand sharing publicly-funded inventions for the public good.