[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 132 (Thursday, October 19, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1835]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER COMMERCIALIZATION ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 17, 2000

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 209, 
the Technology Transfer Commercialization Act conference report. This 
report is the product of over 2 years of hard work on the part of the 
Committee on Science, the Senate Commerce Committee, the Senate 
Judiciary Committee, and the Administration.
  Developing a version of the legislation that is acceptable to all 
these parties has been no small feat in the realm of patent policy, and 
I want to thank Chairman Sensenbrenner, Ranking Democratic Member 
George Brown, Subcommittee Chairwoman Morella, and Subcommittee Ranking 
Democrat Barcia for their hard work.
  H.R. 209 is the result of the first comprehensive review of federal 
patent policy in 15 years. The 1980 Bayh-Dole Act, which it amends, has 
made a major difference in the commercialization of federal inventions. 
Before Bayh-Dole passed, it was relatively rare for inventions 
resulting from federal research to reach their market potential. As 
many as 20,000 federal inventions were patented but not licensed. Only 
two or three inventions at that point had achieved royalties as high as 
$1,000,000, and the total royalty stream for the entire Federal 
Government at that time was less than the royalties received by a 
midsized research university today.
  Bayh-Dole has opened major opportunities to research universities 
like the University of Colorado. It has been a major contributor to the 
outreach activities of contractor-operated laboratories like the 
National Renewable Energy Laboratory. It has led to benefits for 
federally employed inventors and their laboratories at the Department 
of Commerce and throughout the government.
  Over the nearly 20 years since enactment of the Bayh-Dole Act, we've 
learned of the need for some improvements. The bill before us takes 
advantage of the lessons learned and is intended to make the law more 
user-friendly. It also updates the act to reflect the new ways that 
industry now gets and shares information.
  I am also pleased that the bill includes an amendment promoted by 
some of my Democratic colleagues on the Science Committee that requires 
each DOE laboratory to have an ombudsman and to report quarterly on its 
operations to DOE. This provision addresses problems that citizens 
around the country have experienced in getting their issues with DOE 
weapons laboratories addressed in a timely fashion. Small businesses 
now will have a place to turn within the laboratories to have their 
concerns addressed, and there will be quarterly reporting of the 
progress being made by the ombudsmen to all of the pertinent officials 
within the Department of Energy.
  I urge passage of the bill.

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