Diffusing innovations : implementing the Technology Transfer Act of 1986 : report to the Chairman, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, House of Representatives / United States General Accounting Office.

  • United States. General Accounting Office
Date:
[1991]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diffusing innovations : implementing the Technology Transfer Act of 1986 : report to the Chairman, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, House of Representatives / United States General Accounting Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Output—Patents, Licenses, Royalties B-243863 In fiscal year 1989, there were 676 patents issued to 87 federal laborato- ries.!© Together, DOD, DOE, and NASA accounted for 88 percent of the pat- ents. (See table VI.4.) In addition, the laboratories reported a total of 1,547 patent applications and 2,233 patents pending; the same three departments also accounted for 81 percent of both the exclusive and nonexclusive licenses issued. DOD, DOE, Interior, HHS, NASA, and USDA labo- ratories, collectively, accounted for the $6 million in royalty income reported for 1989. The findings reported here are not indicators of the Technology Transfer Act’s outcome, but rather of the federal R&D output at one point in time. Thus, these results alone should not be taken as an indica- tion that there has been very little return to the federal government for its investment in federal R&D. Views of Laboratory Staff transfer legislation has been more effective than not, they also cited bar- riers and constraints to implementation. These opinions were similar to those expressed in our earlier reviews.'¢ In particular, the problems most frequently mentioned by our respondents were: federal computer software cannot be copyrighted; companies need greater protection for proprietary information; private industry finds required government procedures burdensome and time-consuming; and conflicts of interest persist.!” Nonetheless, some were able to overcome such constraints. With respect to accounts of technology transfer attempts, laboratory respondents reported 169 examples of successful efforts as well as 81 examples of failed transfers. 15Some differences exist between the output statistics reported by the laboratories and their head- quarters. We did not change our statistics for two reasons. First, our study’s requester specifically asked that we obtain the laboratories’ perspective on the implementation of the act. Second, the dif- ferences may reflect unequal access to the available statistics between the laboratories and their headquarters at the time of our survey. 16See Technology Transfer: Constraints Perceived by Federal Laboratory and Agency Officials (GAO/R -] R, Mar. 4, 1988), Technology Transfer: Implementation Status of the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986 (GAO/ -154, May 30, 1989), and Technology Transfer: Copyright Law Constrains Commercialization of Some Federal Software (GAO/ RCED 00-145. June 1, 1990). '7Greatgr protection for proprietary information has been provided by the National Competitiveness Technology Transfer Act of 1989.