45 C.F.R. § 650.5
At the request of the prospective awardee or on recommendation from NSF staff, a Grants or Contracts Officer, with the concurrence of the cognizant Program Manager, may negotiate special patent provisions when he or she determines that exceptional circumstances require restriction or elimination of the right of a prospective awardee to retain title to any subject invention in order to better promote the policy and objectives of chapter 18 of title 35 of the United States Code or the National Science Foundation Act. The Grants or Contracts Officer will prepare the written determination required by § 401.3(e) of title 37 of the Code of Federal Regulations and assure that appropriate reports are made to the Secretary of Commerce and Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration as required in § 401.3(f) . Unless doing so would be inconsistent with an obligation imposed on the Foundation by statute, international agreement, or pact with other participants in or supporters of the research, every special patent provision will allow the awardee, after an invention has been made, to request that it be allowed to retain principal rights to that invention under § 650.12(e) of this regulation.
45 C.F.R. §650.5