Technology Transfer Act Moves Forward in House

A bill that would revise Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) provisions has passed the House Subcommittee on Technology. The amended version of the Technology Transfer Commercialization Act of 1997

(H.R. 2544) now moves to the House Science Committee for further consideration.

The bill would amend the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 by revising the requirements regarding a CRADA. Specifically, the bill would repeal provisions relating to restrictions on the licensing of federally owned inventions and replace them with new provisions which, among other things, would:

*Leverage the existing technology transfer rules by allowing federal laboratories to include already existing patented inventions in a CRADA to enhance chances for commercialization;

*Revise public notification requirements to 30 days in order to be able to license federal inventions, and exempt from public notification requirements the licensing of inventions to companies participating in CRADAs;

*Authorize in some instances federal agencies to grant exclusive or partially exclusive licenses on federally owned inventions; and,

*Give first preference for the granting of such licenses to small business firms.

A copy of H.R. 2544 can be found by searching the Library of Congress’ Thomas Jefferson Legislative website at http://thomas.loc.gov/bss/d105query. html