[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 319 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 319

   Expressing the sense of the Congress regarding the successful and 
substantial contributions of the amendments to the patent and trademark 
 laws that were enacted in 1980 (Public Law 96-517; commonly known as 
the ``Bayh-Dole Act''), on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of its 
                               enactment.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           December 16, 2005

Mr. Sensenbrenner (for himself, Mr. Conyers, Mr. Boehlert, Mr. Gordon, 
Mr. Smith of Texas, Mr. Berman, Mr. Ehlers, Mr. Wu, Mr. Coble, Ms. Zoe 
Lofgren of California, Mr. Green of Wisconsin, Mr. Cannon, Mr. Jenkins, 
 Mr. Feeney, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Honda, Mr. Miller of North Carolina, and 
   Mr. Inglis of South Carolina) submitted the following concurrent 
    resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
   Expressing the sense of the Congress regarding the successful and 
substantial contributions of the amendments to the patent and trademark 
 laws that were enacted in 1980 (Public Law 96-517; commonly known as 
the ``Bayh-Dole Act''), on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of its 
                               enactment.

Whereas article I, section 8, clause 8, of the United States Constitution 
        provides that Congress shall have Power ``[t]o promote the Progress of 
        Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and 
        Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and 
        Discoveries'';
Whereas the 96th Congress enacted Public Law 96-517, entitled ``An Act to amend 
        the patent and trademark laws'' (commonly known as the ``Bayh-Dole 
        Act'', in honor of its two lead sponsors in the Senate, the Honorable 
        Birch Bayh and the Honorable Bob Dole), in 1980;
Whereas for 15 to 20 years before the enactment of the Bayh-Dole Act, Members of 
        Congress considered, discussed, and deliberated on the proper resolution 
        of issues implicated by the Act;
Whereas before the enactment of the Bayh-Dole Act, the United States was 
        confronted by great economic uncertainty and presented with 
        unprecedented new challenges from foreign industrial competition;
Whereas before 1980, only 5 percent of patents owned by the Federal Government 
        were used by the private sector--a situation that resulted in the 
        American people being denied the benefits of further development, 
        disclosure, exploitation, and commercialization of the Government's 
        patent portfolio;
Whereas the Bayh-Dole Act established a ``single, uniform national policy 
        designed to . . . encourage private industry to utilize government 
        financed inventions through the commitment of the risk capital necessary 
        to develop such inventions to the point of commercial application'', and 
        eliminated the 26 different Federal agency policies that had existed 
        regarding the use of the results of federally funded research and 
        development;
Whereas the Bayh-Dole Act fundamentally changed the Federal Government's patent 
        policies by enabling inventors or their employers to retain patent 
        rights in inventions developed as part of federally funded research 
        grants, thereby promoting licensing and the leveraging of contributions 
        by the private sector towards applied research, and facilitating the 
        transfer of technology from the laboratory bench to the marketplace;
Whereas examples of the tangible products and technologies that have resulted 
        from the Bayh-Dole Act include, inter alia, an improved method for 
        preserving organs for transplant, a lithography system to enable the 
        manufacture of nano-scale devices, the development of new 
        chemotherapeutic agents, the discovery of new therapies for the 
        treatment of patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, and countless 
        other advances in materials, electronics, energy, environmental 
        protection, and information technologies;
Whereas these new therapies, technologies, and inventions, which have resulted 
        from the collaborative environment fostered by the Bayh-Dole Act, have 
        directly contributed to the ability of medical researchers to discover 
        and commercialize new treatments that alleviate patient suffering, 
        enhance the ability of doctors to diagnose and treat disease, and target 
        promising new medical research;
Whereas the Bayh-Dole Act has stimulated two of the major contemporary 
        scientific trends of the last quarter century--the development of the 
        biotechnology and information communications industries--and the Act is 
        poised to continue playing a central role in new fields of innovative 
        activities, including nanotechnology;
Whereas the Bayh-Dole Act has resulted in benefitting taxpayers by generating 
        millions of dollars in annual licensing royalties for universities and 
        nonprofit institutions--revenues that are reinvested in furtherance of 
        additional research and education programs;
Whereas the incentives provided under the Act and the exchange of technology and 
        research between and among the research community, small businesses, and 
        industry, have resulted in new cooperative ventures and the emergence of 
        sophisticated high-technology businesses, which provide a major catalyst 
        for innovation and entrepreneurial activity;
Whereas more than 4,000 new companies have been created to develop and market 
        academic research and development since 1980, and it is estimated that 
        nearly 2300 of these companies were still in operation at the end of 
        fiscal year 2003;
Whereas Lita Nelsen, director of the Technology Licensing Office at the 
        Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has described the Bayh-Dole Act 
        as ``one of the most successful pieces of economic development and job-
        creation legislation in recent history'';
Whereas the Bayh-Dole Act was described in a 2002 article in The Economist (US) 
        as ``[p]ossibly the most inspired piece of legislation to be enacted in 
        America over the past half-century . . . More than anything, this single 
        policy measure helped to reverse America's precipitous slide into 
        industrial irrelevance'';
Whereas the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that university 
        administrators and small business representatives considered the Bayh-
        Dole Act to have had ``a significant impact on their research and 
        innovation efforts'';
Whereas a study of business executives found that 9 out of 10 identified the 
        Bayh-Dole Act as an ``important factor'' in decisions to fund research 
        and development in academia;
Whereas Howard Bremer, who served as patent counsel to the Wisconsin Alumni 
        Research Foundation from 1960 to 1988, once observed that, ``[o]ne 
        important factor . . . is that the success was achieved without cost to 
        the taxpayer. In other words, no separate appropriation of government 
        funds was needed to establish or manage the effort'';
Whereas a 1998 GAO study found that the law had a positive impact on all 
        involved and that the increased commercialization of federally funded 
        research that resulted from implementation of the Act had positively 
        affected both the Federal Government and the American people;
Whereas the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology reported 
        to the President in May 2003 that the Act ``dramatically improved the 
        nation's ability to move ideas from research and development to the 
        marketplace and into commerce'' and that the system put in place for 
        transferring technology from nonprofit institutions, which includes 
        universities and Government laboratories, to the private sector has 
        worked well;
Whereas the Bayh-Dole Act states, ``[i]t is the policy and objective of the 
        Congress to promote the utilization of inventions arising from 
        federally-supported research or development; . . . to promote 
        collaboration between commercial concerns and nonprofit organizations, 
        including universities; . . . to promote the commercialization and 
        public availability of inventions made in the United States by United 
        States industry and labor; [and] to ensure that the Government obtains 
        sufficient rights in federally-supported inventions to meet the needs of 
        the Government and protect the public against nonuse or unreasonable use 
        of inventions'';
Whereas the Congress finds that the policies and objectives of the Bayh-Dole Act 
        have been achieved and that the patent law has played a critical role in 
        stimulating technological advances and disclosing useful technical 
        information to the public;
Whereas the Congress finds that federally-funded research at universities and 
        Government laboratories and the partnerships between such nonprofit 
        institutions and the private sector play a critical role in developing 
        the technologies that allow the United States to lead the world in 
        innovation; and
Whereas the Bayh-Dole Act and its subsequent amendments, which include the 
        Trademark Clarification Act of 1984 (Public Law 98-620), have played a 
        vital role in enabling the United States to become renowned as the world 
        leader in scientific research, innovation, ingenuity, and collaborative 
        research that involves institutions of higher education and the private 
        sector: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That it is the sense of the Congress that--
            (1) the Bayh-Dole Act (Public Law 96-517) has made 
        substantial contributions to the advancement of scientific and 
        technological knowledge, fostered dramatic improvements in 
        public health and safety, strengthened the higher education 
        system in the United States, served as a catalyst for the 
        development of new domestic industries that have created tens 
        of thousands of new jobs for American citizens, strengthened 
        States and local communities across the country, and benefitted 
        the economic and trade policies of the United States; and
            (2) it is appropriate that the Congress reaffirm its 
        commitment to the policies and objectives of the Bayh-Dole Act 
        by acknowledging its contributions and commemorating the silver 
        anniversary of its enactment.
                                 <all>