Full Title: Actions Needed to Assess U.S. Manufacturing Policy and Protect Technology from Foreign Acquisition
Author(s): U.S. Government Accountability Office
Publisher(s): U.S. Government Accountability Office
Publication Date: May 1, 2024
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
To increase the benefits of DOE’s research and development (R&D) investments, the Bayh-Dole Act lets national labs and universities patent DOE-funded inventions and license them to companies. In recent years, some companies have manufactured important products developed with such funding overseas. In 2021, DOE expanded requirements for U.S. manufacturing of DOE-funded technologies to cover a broader range of circumstances. Previously, by law, they applied only to licensees with exclusive rights to sell and use the covered product in the U.S.
This report examines (1) DOE’s 2021 policy, its process for waiving domestic manufacturing requirements, and lab and university views on these issues; (2) DOE’s efforts to oversee lab and university licensees’ compliance with U.S. manufacturing requirements; and (3) procedures for managing risks of foreign acquisition of DOE-funded technologies. GAO analyzed relevant laws and policies, analyzed patent license templates, and surveyed officials at all 17 DOE national labs and 19 universities, selected to represent different regions and varying numbers of DOE licenses. The universities were selected out of 184 academic institutions that filed patent applications for DOE funded research from fiscal years 2012 through 2022.