The Obama Administration issued two Presidential Memoranda designed to speed the transfer of federal R&D from the lab to the market and to create BusinessUSA, a one-stop online platform where businesses that want to begin or increase exporting can access information about available federal programs. The first memo — Accelerating Technology Transfer and Commercialization of Federal Research in Support of High-Growth Businesses (click here) — directs federal agencies with research facilities to accelerate the commercialization timeline in three key ways:
- to streamline and accelerate the process for private-public research partnerships, small business research and development grants, and university-start-up collaborations;
- to provide greater flexibility to partner with industry, encouraging research facilities to create partnerships with local communities, support the growth of regional innovation clusters, and share laboratory facilities with local businesses; and
- to institute more accountability by directing agencies to develop a five-year plan with concrete goals and metrics to measure progress, including keeping track of how many patents each lab generates.
The second memo directs the Administration to create within 90 days BusinessUSA, a one-stop shop for information regarding federal programs and services relevant to businesses that want to begin or increase exporting. BusinessUSA will use technology to connect businesses to the services and information relevant to them, regardless of where the information is located or which agency’s website, call center, or office they seek for help. The program will be designed, tested, and built with feedback from U.S. businesses and relevant online communities and, to the extent possible, will integrate related state and local government services as well as those of private sector partners.
Attorney Gene Quinn writes on IP Watchdog that this latest set of federal initiatives is a good idea, but he doubts they will work in any relevant time frame to create new jobs. “There is too much work that needs to be done, you cannot mandate the speed of innovation, and many universities have a rather myopic view of their role within the technology transfer cycle to suggest that an effort like this will yield any results over the short-term,” Quinn says. “It is, however, something that should be undertaken.”
To facilitate the Presidential directive, the USPTO, in collaboration with the National Science Foundation, will pilot a program to provide Small Business Innovation Research awardees with comprehensive IP support through the agency’s small business programs and resources, Quinn adds. Since the launch of the Small Business Innovation Research Pilot Program earlier this month, USPTO says it has provided educational services through its Global Intellectual Property Academy, which will begin offering monthly webinars covering a broad array of IP topics. Aside from mention in a press release, however, there is no information about this SBIR pilot program seemingly available on the USPTO website, he points out.
“Clearly, the Obama Administration feels that accelerating the timeline to get federally funded research into the hands of the marketplace will help start-ups and small businesses to create new technologies, create new jobs, and grow the economy,” Quinn writes. “This is all well and good, and a more streamlined innovation cycle is certainly laudable, but I can’t help but wonder exactly how this will actually be accomplished. The best way to streamline the innovation cycle would be to adequately fund the Patent Office, thereby allowing them to hire enough examiners to plow through the backlog. That debate was lost, and the Patent Office now has more work and less funding thanks to the America Invents Act.”
Sources: The White House and IP Watchdog
Posted November 2nd, 2011 under Tech Transfer
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