2001 Tech Transfer Activities of Federal Agencies Examined

The federal laboratories and research facilities associated with nine federal agencies can serve as a treasure chest of technologies for commercialization, according to Intellectual Property: Federal Agency Efforts in Transferring and Reporting New Technology (GAO-03-47). The recent report by the General Accounting Office (GAO) discloses that in fiscal year 2001, nine federal agencies created 3,676 new inventions, issued 1,585 patents and received $74.5 million in licensing revenues.

Agencies included in the report were: the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Air Force, Army, Department of Energy (DOE), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Navy, and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

These agencies differ greatly in their approaches concerning what they will patent, the types of licensing agreements they will enter, and how they report their output. Some of the agencies have decentralized their technology transfer programs while others have centralized. While only one in nine agencies submitted their report on time, as required by the Technology Transfer Commercialization Act of 2002, all agencies eventually submitted reports. However, some of the reports were inconsistent, inaccurate or incomplete. Some agency reports differed in the elements used to calculate statistics for the reports. Much of this, according to the GAO review, is attributable to confusion stemming from this being the first year for implementing the act.

Despite the failure of the agencies to provide reports on time, the GAO provides some insight into the activity of the nine agencies. The report includes appendices reporting activity for each agency. Some of this information for FY 2001, including the number of inventions disclosures, patent applications, and Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs), is highlighted below:

Agency

ARS

Air Force

Army

DOE

NASA

NIH

NOAA

Navy

USGS

Each agency has been very successful in developing new technologies. Examples of this are:

• ARS: soybean varieties, new germplasm releases, technology for combating red fire ants in the southern U.S.
• Air Force: environmentally friendly system for removing snow from airplanes
• Army: concrete armor unit, new ceramic materials, developed a new method for detecting viruses and nanoparticles in real time
• DOE: a leading chemical separation instrument, new catalyst for fuel cell development
• NASA: produced two distinct wavelengths from a single laser, a system to improve the clarity of video footage by correcting distortion caused by adverse conditions
• NIH: new technologies to improve magnetic resonance images, first to develop a strain of the Hepatitis A virus in a cell culture for study
• NOAA: produce fishmeal from fish processing waste, acoustic scintillation liquid flow measurement system
• Navy: digital image enhancement technology, environmentally safe anti-biofouling coating system for ship hulls
• USGS: mapping software, real-time water quality information technology

The GAO report provides two recommendations for federal agencies to help with implementing the Technology Transfer Commercialization Act of 2002. First, the Department of Commerce needs to clarify which data elements are to be included in the agencies' reports. Secondly, the Office and Management and Budget should develop guidelines for gathering the information submitted by the agencies.

Some of the agencies have taken steps to improve contractor and grantee compliance; however, they have not addressed some of the underlying problems such as duplication in reporting requirements.

Intellectual Property: Federal Agency Efforts in Transferring and Reporting New Technology (GAO-03-47) can be downloaded at: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0347.pdf