GAO-14-116R SBIR Data Rights Protections

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November 4, 2013

Congressional Committees 

Small Business Innovation Research: Data Rights Protections

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program targets small businesses for federal 

research or research and development funding to develop and commercialize innovative 

technologies. The SBIR program is managed by the Small Business Administration (SBA).

Under the program, small businesses that have been granted awards by federal agencies 

participating in the SBIR program enter agreements with these agencies to perform the 

research work. Specifically, federal agencies with a budget of more than $100 million for 

extramural research or research and development—which is generally conducted by nonfederal 

employees—must establish and operate an SBIR program.1 The Small Business Act, in a 1992 

amendment, required SBA to include in its SBIR policy directive a provision for small 

businesses to retain the rights to data they generate in the performance of an SBIR award for 

not less than 4 years. The law also prohibited federal agencies from approving any agreement 

that violates any provision of the law or directives, including the provisions, related to data 

rights. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in 2012 required SBA to amend its 

SBIR policy directive to address the NDAA's amendments to the Small Business Act, including 

those regarding data rights.

2

SBA is now in the process of amending the provisions of the SBIR policy directive that pertain to 

data rights. Because the update to the policy directive has a bearing on the issue of whether 

laws and policy directives are sufficient to protect SBIR awardees, GAO will study the data 

rights issues once SBA has completed this update, which SBA officials estimate will be in late 

2013 or early 2014.

 The NDAA also requires GAO to report to Congress on whether 

(1) federal agencies comply with the data rights protections for SBIR awardees, (2) the laws and 

policy directives are sufficient to protect the data rights of SBIR awardees, and (3) there is an 

effective process for tracking and resolving SBIR awardee grievances regarding data rights. 

To determine the status of SBA’s update to the policy directive, we reviewed laws and the 

current SBIR policy directive and interviewed SBA officials. We conducted this performance 

audit from August to October 2013, in accordance with generally accepted government auditing 

standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, 

appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on 

our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our 

findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.

 1

Eleven federal agencies currently participate in the SBIR program: the Departments of Agriculture; Commerce;

Defense; Education; Energy; Health and Human Services; Homeland Security; and Transportation; the 

Environmental Protection Agency; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; and the National Science 

Foundation.

2

Pub. L. No. 112-81, Title LI, § 5151, 125 Stat. 1857 (2011).
Page 2 GAO-14-116R SBIR Data Rights Protections

We are not making any recommendations in this report.

We requested comments from SBA on a draft of this report, but none were provided.

We are sending copies of this report to the Administrator of the Small Business Administration, 

the appropriate congressional committees, and other interested parties. In addition, the report is

available at no charge on the GAO website at http://www.gao.gov. 

If you or your staff members have any questions about this report, please contact me at (202) 

512-3841 or ruscof@gao.gov. Contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and 

Public Affairs may be found on the last page of this report. GAO staff who made key 

contributions to this report were Karla Springer, Assistant Director; Richard Johnson; Cynthia 

Norris; and Ilga Semeiks. 

Frank Rusco

Director, Natural Resources and Environment 
Page 3 GAO-14-116R SBIR Data Rights Protections

List of Committees

The Honorable Mary L. Landrieu 

Chairman

The Honorable James E. Risch

Ranking Member

Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship

United States Senate

The Honorable Lamar Smith

Chairman

The Honorable Eddie Bernice Johnson

Ranking Member

Committee on Science, Space, and Technology

House of Representatives

The Honorable Sam Graves

Chairman

The Honorable Nydia Velázquez 

Ranking Member

Committee on Small Business

House of Representatives

(361486)
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