Technology Transfer Act of 1999

Summary

Technology Transfer Act of 1999 - Amends Federal patent law to revise Federal restrictions on the licensing of federally owned inventions. Requires a license applicant to make a commitment to achieve practical utilization of the invention within a reasonable time. Requires such a license to include provisions: (1) retaining a nontransferable, irrevocable, paid-up license for the Federal agency to practice the invention or have the invention practiced throughout the world by or on behalf of the U.S. Government; (2) requiring periodic reporting on use of the invention by the licensee only to the extent necessary to enable the Federal agency to determine whether the licensee is complying with license terms; and (3) empowering the Federal agency to terminate the license if the licensee has been found by a competent authority to have violated the Federal antitrust laws in connection with its performance under the license agreement. Requires a Federal agency to treat any required periodic invention utilization report as privileged and confidential commercial and financial information obtained from a person, and not subject to public disclosure. Prohibits an agency from granting an exclusive or partially exclusive license on a federally-owned invention unless: (1) it has provided 15 days' public notice and considered all comments received (unless the license is for an invention made under a cooperative research and development (R&D) agreement); and (2) the person requesting the license has supplied to the agency a plan for development and-or marketing of the invention. Amends provisions commonly known as "the Bayh-Dole Act" with regard to Government acquisition of the rights of a private party to a federally owned invention when a Federal employee is a coinventor of any invention made with a nonprofit organization, small business firm, or a non-Federal inventor. Authorizes the Federal agency employing such coinventor, for the purpose of consolidating rights in the invention and expediting its development, to: (1) license or assign whatever rights it may acquire in the invention to the nonprofit organization, small business firm, or non-Federal inventor; or (2) acquire any rights in the invention from the nonprofit organization, small business firm, or non-Federal inventor, but only to the extent the party from whom the rights are acquired voluntarily enters into the transaction and no other transaction under such Act is conditioned on such acquisition. Authorizes each Federal agency to acquire rights for and administer to the Federal Government royalties in any federally owned invention in order to facilitate its licensing, but only to the extent the party from whom the rights are acquired voluntarily enters into the transaction.

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3 official files

• Introduced in Senate (text)

  Introduced in Senate · EN · 11 May 1999

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• Introduced in Senate (PDF)

  Introduced in Senate · EN · 11 May 1999

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• Introduced in Senate

  summary · EN · 11 May 1999

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