Improving Efficiency to Increase Competition Act

In this section:

The term ability means time, resources, staff, and any other metric determined necessary for compliance under the contract requirements described in chapter 18 of title 35, United States Code, including any regulation issued under that chapter.

The terms contractor, Federal agency, and funding agreement have the meanings given those terms in section 201 of title 35, United States Code.

The term institution of higher education has the meaning given the term in section 101(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a)).

The term relevant committees means the following:

(A) The Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate.

(B) The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate.

(C) The Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate.

(D) The Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives.

(E) The Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives.

(F) The Committee on Education and the Workforce of the House of Representatives.

Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall brief the relevant committees, with a report to follow on a mutually agreed upon date that is not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, regarding the implementation of chapter 18 of title 35, United States Code (commonly referred to as the Bayh-Dole Act), specifically with respect to the requirements under that chapter, and the regulations implementing that chapter, that a contractor under a funding agreement with a Federal agency must follow with respect to patent disclosure.

The report required under paragraph (1) shall include, to the extent practicable, information on the following:

(A) The percentage of inventions, as defined in section 201 of title 35, United States Code, that are not elected by contractors to retain within the time period provided following the disclosure of an invention under part 401 of title 37, Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor regulations.

(B) After any automatic extension of time has been granted under section 401.14 of title 37, Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor regulation, and in a case in which a contractor requests an additional extension—

(i) the number of such extensions that are granted by Federal agencies for disclosure, election, and filing under that section; and

(ii) the average response time by each Federal agency for such an extension.

(C) How the reporting requirements under chapter 18 of title 35, United States Code, impact the ability of a contractor to compete with foreign competitors.

(D) How the Federal Government uses Federal reporting under chapter 18 of title 35, United States Code, by contractors and suggested improvements to ensure there is an improved public-private partnership.

(E) Barriers that Federal reporting requirements under chapter 18 of title 35, United States Code, create for contractors to develop inventions, as defined in section 201 of title 35, United States Code.

(F) The time and effort institutions of higher education must use for the management and reporting required under chapter 18 of title 35, United States Code, including—

(i) input from contractors with various sizes, budgets, geographical positions, and specialties;

(ii) with respect to any institution of higher education included in the report, a consideration of the specific research designations for that institution, including whether the institution is classified as an R1 or R2 doctoral university, according to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education framework; and

(iii) how such contractors vary on their ability to efficiently comply with the requirements under that chapter.

(G) Difficulties contractors encounter in using the patent reporting system deployed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (commonly known as, and referred to in this paragraph as, iEdison) and recommendations to address those difficulties.

(H) If any other Federal agency does not use iEdison, whether that Federal agency—

(i) would benefit from using a singular standard Federal reporting system; and

(ii) can effectively standardize reporting requirements in order to streamline processes required by contractors.

(I) The number of disclosure systems used throughout the Federal Government, listed by which system is used by each Federal agency, and the various disclosure requirements made by each such Federal agency.