Amended House Bill 50 Summary

• Enacts Ohio Revised Code Section 339.062 to establish that all intellectual property, discoveries, inventions, and patents created by charter county hospital employees acting within their employment scope belong solely to the charter county hospital.

• Charter county hospital boards of trustees may retain, assign, license, transfer, sell, or otherwise dispose of intellectual property rights as determined by the board, with all resulting income applied to hospital use.

• Requires charter county hospital boards to adopt rules allowing employees to solicit or accept financial interests in entities to which the hospital has assigned or sold intellectual property rights, subject to disclosure and conflict-of-interest management requirements.

• Mandates employee disclosure of financial interests to the board, review of disclosures by designated officials, and implementation of guidelines to prevent misuse of hospital employees or resources for personal benefit.

• Grants the Ohio Ethics Commission authority to advise charter county hospital boards on implementation of adopted rules and address matters outside their scope.