Mich. Comp. Laws § 17.401
The state administrative board is authorized and empowered to enter into contracts relating to any invention or discovery of any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, organism, product, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, or any invention or discovery and asexual reproduction of any distinct and new variety of plant, affecting the public health, which invention or discovery or any patent obtained thereon is owned by this state, or in which this state has any property right. The state administrative board is authorized to employ, as occasion demands, patent attorneys on request of the attorney general. The contracts of the state administrative board may provide for the exploration of the character, use, properties, capabilities, or commercial value of such invention or discovery, and may provide for the granting of licenses to make, or have made, use, and sell such invention or discovery, whether patented or not, upon such terms and conditions as seem expedient and proper to the state administrative board. The state administrative board may copyright literary, educational, artistic, or intellectual works in the name of this state and license the production or sale of those works. This state shall not be liable for any act of negligence or breach of contract committed by any contracting party, nor shall any such contract create an obligation on the part of the state for the expenditure of any money, except the expense of litigation in suits involving the protection of the state's property right.
MCL 17.401