Technology Transfer: Reporting Requirements for Federally Sponsored Inventions Need Revision.
Abstract
Federal agencies and their contractors and grantees are not complying with provisions on the disclosure, reporting, retention, and licensing of federally sponsored inventions under the regulations implementing the Bayh-Dole Act and Executive Order 12591. In our review of more than 2,000 patents issued in calendar year 1997 as well as an Inspector General's draft report on 12 large grantees of the National Institutes of Health, we found that the databases for recording the government's royalty-free licenses are inaccurate, incomplete, and inconsistent and that some inventions are not being recorded at all. As a result, the government is not always aware of federally sponsored inventions to which it has royalty-free rights. Few statistics were available on how federal agencies exercise their rights to federally sponsored inventions. Agency officials said the primary benefits of the royalty-free licenses are that the government can use the underlying research without concern about possible challenges that such use was unauthorized. The licenses normally would not be a means by which the government could lower its procurement costs by avoiding the payment of royalties, as royalties are not a factor in most federal procurements. This report includes matters for congressional consideration designed to improve the government 5 ability to exercise its rights in federally sponsored inventions. We note that the Congress may wish to consider enhancing the data available on these inventions by standardizing, improving, and streamlining the reporting process for inventions subject to the Bayh-Dole Act and Executive Order 12591.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADA366623
Entities
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office