-
Join your peers at SSTI's 2024 Annual Conference!
Join us December 10-12 in Arizona to connect with and learn from your peers working around the country to strengthen their regional innovation economies. Visit ssticonference.org for more information and to register today.
-
As the most comprehensive resource available for those involved in technology-based economic development, SSTI offers the services that are needed to help build tech-based economies. Learn more about membership...
-
Subscribe to the SSTI Weekly Digest
Each week, the SSTI Weekly Digest delivers the latest breaking news and expert analysis of critical issues affecting the tech-based economic development community. Subscribe today!
Biotech, Health Dominate Federal Tech Transfer
Ninety-five percent, or $102 million, of all royalties received by six technology related federal agencies during fiscal years 1996-1998 were for licenses issued by the National Institutes of Health, according to a recent General Accounting Office (GAO) study. Technology Transfer: Number and Characteristics of Inventions Licensed by Six Federal Agencies is a compilation of statistics collected from a survey of the National Institutes of Health, the departments of the Army, Navy and the Air Force, the Department of Energy, and NASA.
The report provides information on:
- Government-owned inventions licensed by the six agencies during FY 1996 through 1998, including the royalties received during that period, and the total number of active licenses these agencies had as of October 1, 1998;
- The number of licenses that were exclusive or non-exclusive;
- The number of licensees that were small businesses, individuals, large businesses, or nonprofit organizations; and,
- The number of licensees that were foreign or domestic.
The six agencies reported that they granted a total of 866 licenses and received $107.5 million in royalties during FY1996 through 1998. Nearly three-fourths of these licenses were nonexclusive; 60 percent went to small businesses or individuals; and, 89 percent went to domestic entities.
The accompanying table presents the characteristics of the licenses by agency. As can be seen, the National Institutes of Health dominate the federal licensing of inventions. Department of Energy officials pointed out to GAO during the study, however, that inventions developed in government-owned research facilities and laboratories operated by contractors are the property of those contractors and would not be included in the license statistics. Much of the DOE royalties received are for contractor-owned inventions, though.
Copies of Technology Transfer: Number and Characteristics of Inventions Licensed by Six Federal Agencies (GAO/RCED-99-173) can be downloaded or ordered through the GAO website http://www.gao.gov