FLC Washington DC Office

Gary K. JonesGary K. JonesFLC DC RepFLC DC Rep

FLC Mid-Atlantic Regional MeetingFLC Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting““DC Update”DC Update”

Leesburg, VALeesburg, VANovember 13, 2013November 13, 2013

Overview

Administration Actions

Presidential Memo Update

OSTP Lab-to-Market

OMB Budget Guidance

Congressional Actions

Rep. Collins: STTR

Sen. Udall: DOE T2

Rep. Goodlatte: Patents

Presidential Memorandum Update

Accelerating Technology Transfer and Commercialization of Federal Research in Support of High-Growth Businesses (Oct 2011)

Establishing Goals and Measuring Progress5-year plans due April 2012, IWGT propose new metrics, etc.

Streamline Tech Transfer and Commercialization ProcessReduce licensing/CRADA timing; database for technologies, etc.

Local and Regional PartnershipsParticipate in regional clusters; locate res. parks near labs, etc.

Presidential Memorandum Update (Status of Reports)

Status (see all 13 reports here) (NIST web site)

Executive Summary of Agency Reports - summarizes the individual responses to the PM by thirteen Federal agencies.

Opportunities to Substantially Increase Technology Transfer - identifiesopportunities and consolidates recommendations from the IAWGTT forinnovative approaches to T2 proposed by agencies in their plans.

Revised Technology Transfer Metrics - outlines proposed changes to theset of technology transfer metrics that are reported annually by the Department of Commerce, in conjunction with the IAWGTT, in the FederalLaboratory Technology Transfer Summary Report to the President and theCongress.

Administration Actions(OSTP Lab-to-Market Summit/Initiative)

■ Lab-To-Market Summit (May)

■ Lab-To-Market Initiative (May-Sep) (Not Public Yet)

Administrative actions to help increase the nation’s return on it’s R&D investment by accelerating and improving the transfer of research breakthroughs from the laboratory to the commercial marketplace

OSTP FY 2014 S&T Budget Documents (Proposed)

FY 2014 Budget proposes $142.8 billion for Federal R&D, an increase of $1.9 billion or 1.3 percent over the 2012 enacted*

Federal research portfolio—comprising basic and applied research—would total $68.1 billion, up $4.8 billion or 7.5 percent

Non-defense R&D would rise 9.2 percent to $69.6 billion Defense R&D (DOD & DOE) down 5.2 percent to $73.2 billion

Increases: DOE OS, NASA R&D, NSF, US Global Change Res. Program, DHS R&D, USGS, NIST intramural labs, NOAA R&D

Decreases: EPA, National Nanotech Initiative

Flat: NIH (+1.5%)

* Comparison are all to FY 2012 enacted – since FY 2014 request came so close to 2013 enacted)

Federal R&D Budget(FY 2014; Released April 2013)

CR through January 15, 2014

Conference Committee Recommendations due December 13, 2014

“….[L]awmakers are tasked with finding compromise between two widely divergent spending plans for fiscal 2014 passed by the House and Senate. Any reconciliation would have to be approved by both chambers.”

“Already, expectations are low among both Republicans and Democrats, and the prospect of a “grand bargain” on 10-year deficit-reduction goals has been largely dismissed. Moreover, no budget conference has reached an agreement in a divided Congress since 1986, when Mike Tyson was heavyweight champion and Magnum P.I. was on television (emphasis added)”

(Billy House, National Journal, 10/29/13)

Federal R&D Budget(Where We Are Now)

Administration Actions(OMB 2015 S&T Budget Guidance)

■ FY 2015 Overall Budget Guidance (May 29)

For discretionary spending:

Agency budget submissions should include reductions that would bring the “overall submission to a level that is 10 percent below the net discretionary total provided for [their] agency for 2015 in the 2014 budget.”

■ FY 2015 S&T Budget Priorities (July 26)

“[A]gencies should promote innovation and commercialization from Federal R&D investments, where appropriate, through support for inducement prizes, fostering the transition of emerging scientific discoveries into engineering disciplines, early-stage technology development, university-industry-government-laboratory partnerships, leveraging of focused and coordinated investments in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, and efforts to better link graduate and postdoctoral training with both private and public-sector workforce needs.”

Congressional Actions(Rep. Collins: STTR)

Technology and Research Accelerating National Security and Future Economic Resiliency (TRANSFER) Act of 2013 (H. 2981)

“‘Each Federal agency required … to establish an STTR program shall carry out a grant program to support innovative approaches to technology transfer at institutions of higher education, non-profit research institutions and FederalLaboratories in order to accelerate the commercialization of federally funded research and technology by small business concerns, including new businesses.”

Use of Funds: early-stage proof of concept fundingidentifying research and technologies for commercializationtech maturation fundingtech validation, market research, clarifying IP rightsmentoring and education

Amounts: $1M to institution ($150K from institution to individual)

Introduced: 8/2/13; House SB Cmte and House SS&T Cmte.

Strongly supported by the university community

Congressional Actions(Sen. Udall: DOE Tech Transfer)

“Technology Transfer Invention, Innovation, and Implementation Act of 2013” (tentative - not yet introduced)

(From comments in August/October – based partially on ITIF study “Turning the Page”)

Proposal:

• Authorize new tools for the Secretary of Energy’s tech transfer office.. • Authorize DOE to create a new Entrepreneurs in Energy Corps, the E2-Corps, to invest in scientists, engineers, and business developers looking to create commercial applications out of technology. • Adapt an existing public-private partnership model used by SBA and USAID to increase access to investment capital.

• Create DOE Office of Advanced Research Tech Transfer and Innovation in Energy (to be located at DOE HQ; responsible for tech transfer policy across all DOE labs)

Congressional Actions(Rep. Goodlatte: Patent Reform)

Innovation Act of 3013 (HR 3309)(Introduced 10/23/13; Hearing held 10/29/13)

“The bipartisan Innovation Act is designed to eliminate the abuses of our patent system, discourage frivolous patent litigation and keep U.S. patent laws up to date.  These important actions will help fuel the engine of American innovation and creativity, creating new jobs and growing our economy.”

(Rep. Goodlatte)

“Some of the changes include severe increases in the requirements associated with filing a patent infringement complaint; major statutory limitations on discovery; elimination of the patent applicant option of filing a civil action to obtain a patent under Section 145; forcing the USPTO to use standard claim construction (rather than BRI) in post-grant proceedings; introduction of a new Double-Patenting rule … [This] 50+ page bill is somewhat complex and, as [name of commenter] wrote, ‘[e]very organization impacted by patents must carefully study the Goodlatte bill for hidden features or suffer the consequences.’” (emphasis added)

(Patently-O blog)

Gary Jones

Phone: 240-444-1383

gkjones.ctr@federallabs.org

www.federallabs.org

FLC Washington DC Representative

Other Legislative & Judicial Actions

(Miscellaneous) Other Legislative Actions

America COMPETES Reauthorization upcoming

Judicial Actions

AMP v. Myriad Isolated DNA not patentable(Supreme Court) Synthetic DNA patentable

Bowman v. Monsanto Doctrine of patent exhaustion ‘does not (Supreme Court) permit a farmer to reproduce patented seeds

thru planting and harvesting w/o the patent holder’s permission’