VETERANS AFFAIRS 

RESEARCH

Actions Needed to 

Help Better Identify 

Agency Inventions

Report to the Committee on Veterans’ 

Affairs, House of Representatives

April 2018

GAO-18-325

United States Government Accountability Office
United States Government Accountability Office

Highlights of GAO-18-325, a report to the

Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, House of 

Representatives

Why GAO Did This Study

April 2018

VETERANS AFFAIRS RESEARCH 

Actions Needed to Help Better Identify Agency

Inventions

What GAO Found

VA manages a $1.9 billion research 

program that has produced numerous 

healthcare inventions, such as the 

pacemaker. In 2000, VA created a 

program to help transfer VA inventions 

to the private sector so that they can 

be commercialized and used by 

veterans and the public, while VA 

retains ownership and collects 

royalties. Many of VA’s 3,000

researchers also hold positions at 

universities, which take the lead in

commercializing inventions developed

by these researchers. Researchers 

and universities are required to

disclose such inventions to VA, and 

universities are to report on 

commercialization activities according 

to their agreements with VA.

GAO was asked to examine VA’s 

ability to ensure its ownership of 

inventions made with VA resources. 

This report examines, among other 

things, the extent to which VA has 

taken steps to ensure that (1) 

researchers disclose inventions and 

(2) universities report on 

commercialization activities for joint

inventions. GAO reviewed laws;

policies; a nongeneralizable sample of 

university agreements based on 

backlogs of disclosures, among other 

factors; and interviews with officials

and researchers from VA medical 

centers and their affiliated universities.

What GAO Recommends

GAO recommends that VA (1) make 

training about invention disclosure 

mandatory and (2) provide universities

with a standardized method for annual 

reporting. VA concurred with GAO’s

recommendations.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has taken steps to educate agency 

researchers about its requirements to disclose inventions to VA, but officials 

reported that researchers have not consistently done so. VA policy requires 

researchers to disclose inventions to both VA and the university they work for

even when they do not use VA resources. GAO found, through discussions with 

VA officials and researchers, that several factors contribute to researchers not 

consistently disclosing their inventions, including that VA researchers may have:

• disclosed inventions to their university, assuming the university would then 

disclose them to VA; 

• not been familiar with VA’s invention disclosure process, because they may 

not have frequently developed inventions; or

• thought that invention disclosure was unnecessary when they did not use VA 

resources to develop their invention.

In 2017, VA staff visited universities and VA medical centers 26 times to meet 

with researchers about invention disclosure. Also, VA created an online training 

course to educate researchers on the need to disclose inventions, but the 

training is not mandatory, and about 4 percent of researchers took it. Without 

mandatory training to communicate invention disclosure requirements—

consistent with federal internal control standards for internally communicating 

quality information—VA researchers may not be fully informed about those 

requirements, which can result in lost technology transfer opportunities and 

royalties for VA.

Path of Invention Disclosures at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

VA has improved communication with universities but has not ensured that they

are consistently reporting information on commercialization activities for joint

inventions. VA reported that about three-quarters of VA’s 79 university partners

did not submit the annual reports required by VA in 2017. GAO reviewed a 

nongeneralizable sample of agreements VA has with universities and found that 

reporting requirements about timing and content of reports were unclear. Without 

providing a standardized method that clearly guides universities in fulfilling VA's 

reporting requirements, consistent with federal standards for internal control, VA 

cannot ensure that it has adequate information to account for its licenses and 

royalties.

View GAO-18-325. For more information, 

contact John Neumann at (202) 512-3841 or 

neumannj@gao.gov
Page i GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

Letter 1

Background 4

VA Has Taken Steps to Educate Researchers and Universities 

about Requirements but Could Enhance Researchers’ Training 9

VA Increased Communication with Universities about Reporting 

Commercialization Activities but Has Not Ensured that Such 

Activities Are Consistently Reported 12

Conclusions 15

Recommendations for Executive Action 16

Agency Comments 16

Appendix I Department of Veterans Affairs Commercialization 

Process, Revenue, and Total Joint Patents 

with Universities 18

Appendix II Comments from the Department of Veterans Affairs 21

Appendix III GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments 23

Tables

Table 1: Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Royalties from 

Licenses in Fiscal Year 2016 19

Table 2: The Number of Joint Patents Owned by the Department 

of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Universities 19

Figures

Figure 1: Department of Veteran Affairs’ (VA) Process for 

Determining Ownership of Inventions of Dually Appointed 

Researchers 8

Figure 2: Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Process for 

Commercialization of Joint Inventions by Researchers 

Working for VA and a University 18

Contents
Page ii GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

Abbreviations

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VA Department of Veterans Affairs

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Page 1 GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

441 G St. N.W.

Washington, DC 20548

April 25, 2018

The Honorable David P. Roe, M.D.

Chairman

The Honorable Tim Walz

Ranking Member

Committee on Veterans’ Affairs

House of Representatives

For more than 90 years, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has 

managed a research program that has led to healthcare breakthroughs 

that improve the lives of veterans and the public. According to VA, the 

department has been instrumental in medical advancements such as 

therapies for tuberculosis following World War II, the implantable cardiac 

pacemaker, concepts for computerized axial tomography scans 

(commonly referred to as CAT scans), the first successful liver 

transplants, and the first powered ankle-foot prosthesis.

In 2000, VA created a technology transfer program to help transfer the 

use of inventions to the private sector so that the inventions could be 

commercialized and used by veterans and the public at large, while VA 

would retain ownership and collect royalties for its inventions.1 Today VA 

oversees a research program that spends $1.9 billion annually and 

employs more than 3,000 researchers focused on health issues such as 

cancer, diabetes, traumatic brain injury, and other conditions affecting 

veterans. In fiscal year 2016, VA patents from such research resulted in 

45 licenses providing the agency about $316,000 in royalties, according 

to VA officials.2

VA’s research program is unique in that the majority of VA’s researchers 

are dually appointed—they work at VA and at another research institution, 

 1

Technology transfer is the process of transferring scientific findings from one organization 

to another for the purpose of further development and commercialization. 

Commercialization is the process of developing, producing, and delivering marketable 

products or services for sale.

2

In addition to receiving royalties for patents, VA also receives royalties for materials and 

intellectual property that is protected as proprietary information, or a trade secret. See 

appendix I for the amount of royalties VA reported receiving from licenses shared with 

universities and from VA’s solely owned licenses in fiscal year 2016, and for the number of 

patents VA jointly owns with each university from calendar year 2000 through November

2017.

Letter
Page 2 GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

such as a university or medical college. VA’s dually appointed 

researchers’ inventions are subject to agreements between VA and the 

university and are considered joint inventions.3 In most cases, the 

affiliated university is responsible for the bulk of technology transfer 

activities, including filing patents, finding licensees to further develop the 

technology, and collecting and distributing royalties. The process, from 

disclosure of the invention to VA to commercialization of the invention, 

requires coordination between researchers and administrators at VA 

medical centers and staff at VA’s technology transfer office, as well as 

between VA’s technology transfer office and the affiliated universities.

Congress has raised questions about the extent to which VA is 

consistently asserting ownership of inventions developed with its 

resources. You asked us to examine the VA technology transfer program 

to ensure VA was not missing opportunities to obtain rights to inventions 

developed using VA resources. This report examines the extent to which 

VA has taken steps to ensure that (1) researchers and universities 

disclose inventions and (2) universities have reported information to VA 

about commercialization activities for joint inventions.

For both objectives, we reviewed documents provided by VA, affiliated 

universities, and a VA advisory committee. These included documents on 

the history of VA’s technology transfer program; technology transfer 

policies and procedures; and documents outlining challenges faced in 

implementing the program and recent efforts to address these challenges. 

We also examined relevant statutes and regulations. We compared VA’s 

procedures, policies, and internal and external communications to federal 

internal control standards for control activities and information and 

communication.4 We also interviewed officials from the VA technology 

transfer office and the VA Office of the General Counsel; officials selected 

through a nonprobability sample of six VA medical centers and their 

affiliated universities; and two of the three members of a subcommittee of 

the National Research Advisory Council that submitted a report to VA on 

the department’s technology transfer program in fiscal year 2017.5 We 

 3

VA refers to the universities, medical colleges, and other schools of medicine with which 

it has arrangements for dual appointees as academic affiliates, but for the purposes of our 

report we refer to all of them as affiliated universities.

4

GAO, Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government, GAO-14-704G 

(Washington, D.C.: September 2014).

5

We invited all three members of the subcommittee to meet, and one was not available.
Page 3 GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

conducted site visits at five of the six VA medical centers—Atlanta, 

Georgia; Baltimore, Maryland; Palo Alto and San Francisco, California; 

and Salt Lake City, Utah—for interviews with researchers who were 

inventors and with the Associate Chiefs of Staff for Research at each 

medical center, to whom we refer as the research administrators. We also 

met with officials of each of the universities affiliated with the respective 

medical centers—Emory University; the University of Maryland at 

Baltimore; Stanford University; the University of California, particularly the 

University of California at San Francisco; and the University of Utah. In 

addition, we conducted telephone interviews with researchers and the 

research administrator at the sixth VA medical center in Cleveland, Ohio, 

and officials of the university affiliated with it, Case Western Reserve 

University. We selected the medical centers and their respective 

university affiliates based on high levels of license activity or backlogs of 

disclosures, among other factors. The results of these interviews are not 

generalizable to all VA medical centers and their affiliated universities but 

provide illustrative examples.

The VA technology transfer program is affiliated with 79 universities and 

has agreements in place with all but three of these. VA began negotiating 

these, which we refer to as original agreements, soon after the creation of 

the VA technology transfer program in 2000. Beginning in fiscal year 

2015, VA initiated a new type of agreement establishing new provisions 

for VA, which we will refer to as new agreements. We reviewed original 

agreements for five of the six universities in our sample. One of the 

universities in our sample, Emory University, did not have an agreement 

with VA as of January 2018.6 We also reviewed a nonprobability sample 

of an additional three original agreements with other universities based on 

their licensing and commercialization activities, for a total of eight original 

agreements. In addition to the original agreements, we also reviewed the 

first eight new agreements that VA negotiated with universities. In total, 

we reviewed 16 agreements—the 8 original agreements and 8 new ones 

to determine whether they contained requirements for disclosure and 

reporting to VA.

For objective two, we requested and reviewed annual reports from VA for 

the eight universities whose original technology transfer agreements we 

reviewed. The annual reports VA provided were those the eight 

 6

Emory University had agreements for individual inventions, but we did not include those 

agreements in our analysis because they were not comparable to the agreements with the 

other universities. 
Page 4 GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

universities submitted to VA in 2016 and 2017, covering technology 

transfer activities, for a total of 12 reports. Not every university submitted 

an annual report to VA for each year; instead, at least one university 

provided an annual report that was late from a prior year, going back as 

far as 2011. We reviewed at least one annual report from each of the 

eight universities.

We conducted this performance audit from October 2016 to April 2018, 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.

Just after World War II, VA developed affiliations with medical schools to 

improve acute care and physical and mental rehabilitation for veterans. 

As part of the relationship, VA medical centers have contributed to the 

education of medical students and residents. Besides medical students 

and residents, other dual appointees—clinicians and researchers—spend 

either a full 40-hour week or a fraction of the work week at VA and other 

time at the affiliated university.

On January 23, 1950, Executive Order 10,096 established that the 

government shall obtain the entire right, title, and interest in and to all 

inventions made by government employees during working hours; with a 

contribution by the government of facilities, equipment, materials, funds, 

or information, or time and services of other government employees on 

official duty; or which bear a direct relation to or are made as a 

consequence of the employee’s duties.7 Since the early 1980s, the 

federal government has taken several actions related to technology 

transfer from federal laboratories.

Technology transfer is the process of transferring scientific findings from 

one organization to another for the purpose of further development and 

commercialization. In this regard, federal agencies are authorized to issue 

licenses to outside entities granting rights to make, use, or sell 

 7

Exec. Order No. 10,096, 15 Fed. Reg. 389 (Jan. 25, 1950).

Background
Page 5 GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

government owned inventions.8 One of the first technology transfer laws, 

the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980, articulated the 

need for a strong national policy supporting domestic technology transfer. 

The law requires federal laboratories to establish an office of research 

and technology applications and devote budget and personnel resources 

to promoting technology cooperation and the transfer of technologies to 

private industry and state and local governments. In addition, the act 

requires federal agencies that operate or direct federal laboratories to 

report information on technology transfer performance annually to the 

Office of Management and Budget, as part of their annual budget 

submission. Copies of those reports should be transmitted to the 

Secretary of Commerce who must submit a summary report to Congress 

and the President.

For many years after the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 

1980, VA waived ownership rights to inventions generated by its 

researchers, leaving the responsibilities for patenting, marketing, and 

licensing with the inventor and the VA medical center’s university partner. 

As a result of this practice, according to former VA officials, some VA 

research was not commercialized because VA did not have a technology 

transfer program or other means to promote commercialization.

In 2000, VA created the VA Technology Transfer Program to facilitate the 

commercialization of VA inventions to benefit veterans and the American 

public. VA developed technology transfer agreements with universities to 

help facilitate technology transfer. Under the terms of the agreements, the 

universities can take the lead on patenting and commercialization, and 

VA can retain joint ownership of inventions. Among other things, the 

original agreements gave the universities the right of first refusal to apply 

for and manage patents, market the technologies, negotiate licenses, and 

collect royalties to be shared with VA.

As of November 2017, the VA Technology Transfer Office, located in 

Washington, D.C., employed five technology transfer specialists 

responsible for all technology transfer activities for VA’s solely owned 

 8

35 U.S.C. § 208; 37 C.F.R. § 404.4. Federal agencies are authorized to issue licenses 

granting exclusive, partially exclusive, or nonexclusive rights to make, use, or sell 

government-owned inventions and are required to share royalty and other income with the 

federal inventor. Under an exclusive license, only one licensee has the right to make, use, 

or sell an invention during the patent’s 20-year life. Under a partially exclusive license, the 

number of licensees, term of exclusivity, field of use, or territory of use may be restricted. 
Page 6 GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

inventions. These inventions may come from more than 3,000 VA 

researchers at over 100 VA medical centers, as well as from VA 

employees at other VA locations.9 In addition, the technology transfer 

specialists are responsible for coordinating with universities on inventions 

made by dually appointed researchers. According to VA officials, VA 

relies on affiliated universities for most of the technology transfer efforts 

connected with such inventions, since the universities have their own 

offices with expertise in technology transfer and are usually willing to take 

the lead.

Under a Veterans Health Administration 2002 policy on invention 

disclosures, which was revised in January 2017, VA employees who 

invent something are directed to disclose those inventions to VA using a 

disclosure form and complete a certification form to certify whether VA 

resources were used.10 VA employees are to disclose inventions to VA 

even if they were not created with VA resources.11 Affiliated universities 

may also require dually appointed researchers to disclose inventions to 

the university. Under agreements between the universities and VA, 

universities are required to disclose a dually appointed researcher’s 

invention to VA, as an additional assurance to aid VA in capturing 

relevant inventions. Similarly, VA is to notify the university when a dually 

appointed researcher’s invention comes to its attention.

 9

For example, VA officials said a VA nurse developed a sterile drape for overhead patient 

lift systems in hospitals; a safety risk manager and a public affairs specialist developed a 

suicide prevention door; and an employee of VA’s National Cemetery Administration 

developed novel casket handling technology.

10The 2002 policy required VA employees with inventions to complete VA certifications 

providing sufficient information and detail for VA to ascertain ownership rights for 

submission to the inventor’s supervisor before being sent to VA’s Technology Transfer 

Office. The 2017 policy requires researchers to provide both an invention disclosure and a 

certification form. In addition, the 2017 policy allows researchers to submit their university 

disclosure form to VA to fulfill the VA disclosure form requirement, if it contains all of the 

same information that the VA requires.

11U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Intellectual 

Property. VHA Handbook 1200.18 (Nov. 1, 2002) and Determination of Rights for 

Inventions and Discoveries, VHA Directive 1200.18 (Jan.11, 2017), The VA policy and 

process for invention disclosure apply to all VA employees. The current VHA directive 

defines an employee as an officer or employee, civilian or military, of VA. Part-time, 

without compensation employees and part-time consultants are included. Additionally, the 

term “employee” includes special government employees, individuals working for VA 

pursuant to the intergovernmental Personnel Act, or a consultant. However, our report 

focuses on VA researchers since they are predominantly responsible for inventions 

among VA employees. 
Page 7 GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

According to VA policy, researchers’ supervisors or research 

administrators at VA medical centers are to review the disclosure forms 

and send them to the VA Technology Transfer Office. The office 

evaluates the information and provides a recommendation to VA’s 

General Counsel on whether VA should assert ownership.12 If General 

Counsel’s review finds that VA should assert ownership, the General 

Counsel notifies the VA researcher’s and the VA medical center’s 

research and development office of the determination. The Technology 

Transfer Office then notifies the researcher’s university about VA’s 

ownership of the invention. At this point the department expects the 

university to include VA as an owner during the patenting process, 

according to VA officials. Figure 1 shows VA’s process for determining 

ownership of inventions created by dually appointed researchers, 

according to VA policies.

 12According to VA officials, researchers can complete the certification form stating that 

they voluntarily agree to assign ownership rights in cases where VA resources were used. 

However, if the researcher does not voluntarily assign ownership rights, VA can assert 

ownership rights if VA resources were used. If a researcher does not agree with VA’s 

assertion of ownership rights, however, he or she can appeal to the National Institute of 

Standards and Technology, which can make a final determination. VA officials said 

appeals are rare.
Page 8 GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

Figure 1: Department of Veteran Affairs’ (VA) Process for Determining Ownership of Inventions of Dually Appointed 

Researchers

If the university takes the lead on an invention of a dually appointed 

researcher, original VA agreements require universities to provide annual 

reports to update VA on commercialization activities, such as progress in 

licensing inventions or collecting royalties from licensees. While less 

commonly used, alternative processes for commercialization are shown in 

appendix I.

We and others have identified a number of challenges associated with 

technology transfer from federal research facilities.13 For example, we 

found that technology transfer is often not a priority for laboratory 

managers; researchers may not understand the potential commercial 

 13For more information on challenges faced in technology transfer, see GAO, Technology 

Transfer: Federal Laboratory Consortium Should Increase Communication with Potential 

Customers to Improve Initiatives, GAO-15-127, (Washington, D.C.; Oct. 3, 2014).
Page 9 GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

applicability of their innovations; or the technologies are often not 

developed enough for use in market-ready products and may require 

investment of additional time and money to develop. We also have 

reported that pharmaceutical inventions in particular may take a relatively 

long time to develop.14 For example, the entire discovery, development, 

and review process of a new drug can take up to 15 years.

Although VA has taken steps to educate researchers about disclosure of 

inventions, VA officials reported that the researchers have not 

consistently disclosed inventions to the department because they did not 

always fully understand VA’s disclosure policy. Officials from VA’s 

technology transfer office told us on multiple occasions that they believed 

researchers did not consistently disclose inventions. For example, in 

December 2016, VA officials said that once the technology transfer office 

began sending researchers e-mail notices about the need to disclose 

inventions, the number of disclosures increased, which they said 

suggested underreporting had been occurring. In March 2017, the 

officials told us that many of the inventions from more than 50 

researchers during a 5-year period at one university had not been 

disclosed until VA checked with the university and discovered the error. 

By November 2017, VA technology transfer officials thought disclosure 

had improved throughout VA, but they were still not able to describe the 

extent of the problem.

 14For more information on how reported research and development spending and new 

drug approvals have changed over time see GAO, Drug Industry: Profits, Research and 

Development Spending, and Merger and Acquisition Deals, GAO-18-40, (Washington, 

D.C.; Nov. 17, 2017).

VA Has Taken Steps 

to Educate 

Researchers and 

Universities about 

Requirements but 

Could Enhance 

Researchers’ Training

VA Has Taken Steps to 

Educate Researchers but 

Reported that 

Researchers Have Not 

Always Disclosed Their 

Inventions
Page 10 GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

The researchers we interviewed at the six medical centers in our sample 

generally believed that they had properly disclosed inventions. However, 

according to VA officials, a university official, and two VA researchers, 

there could be several reasons that contributed to researchers not 

consistently disclosing their inventions to VA, including the following:

• Researchers may have disclosed inventions to their university, 

assuming the university would disclose them to VA on their behalf.

• Researchers may have disclosed their inventions to the university 

because it was more convenient than disclosing to VA, as the 

university’s technology transfer officials were more accessible to 

answer questions.

• Researchers were not familiar with VA’s invention disclosure process 

because the process was not routine to them.

• Researchers may have believed they did not use VA resources and 

did not realize they were still required to disclose to VA.

• VA research administrators may not always have reminded 

researchers of the need to disclose inventions, as they did not 

consider this requirement a priority.

VA made efforts since fiscal year 2016 to inform researchers about its 

disclosure policy. For example, according to VA officials, the department 

has increased its in-person communication with VA researchers. In the 

first 8 months of fiscal year 2017, VA staff made 26 visits to universities 

and VA medical centers to meet with researchers to encourage the 

disclosure of inventions.15 However, VA officials said participation rates 

among researchers at these voluntary meetings were low in some cases. 

At one medical center, only the research administrator and one other 

researcher attended the meeting, according to the administrator.

In addition, VA established an online training program in 2017 covering 

the invention disclosure process, but the training is not mandatory. VA 

provided us with a report from October 2017 indicating that out of over 

3,000 eligible researchers, 130 had taken the training (about 4 percent). 

One VA research administrator said that mandatory training would be 

helpful. Under federal internal control standards, management is to 

internally communicate the necessary quality information to achieve the 

entity’s objectives, such as by communicating that information down and 

 15 VA technology transfer officials said that they made 10 visits to universities and VA 

medical centers in fiscal year 2016.
Page 11 GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

across reporting lines to enable personnel to perform key roles in 

achieving those objectives. Given that VA has not made the meetings or 

online training on disclosure policy mandatory, its importance may not be 

clear to all researchers. Also, because researchers do not make 

discoveries every year, and the process is not routine, taking such 

training once may not be sufficient to educate users. Without requiring 

researchers to take online training on the invention disclosure process 

annually, researchers may not be fully informed about the requirement to 

disclose inventions, which can result in lost technology transfer 

opportunities and lost royalties for VA if the inventions are not disclosed.16

Based on our interviews with VA and university officials in our sample, 

since fiscal year 2016, the department took steps to make universities 

aware of VA researchers and their disclosure requirements in an effort to 

improve university disclosures to VA. We reviewed 16 agreements 

between VA and affiliated universities, including the five universities with 

agreements in our sample, and all of the universities agreed to disclose 

joint inventions to the department. However, VA officials we interviewed 

said that universities may not always disclose all inventions to VA. 

Although they said they could not identify the extent of the problem, the 

officials highlighted one university in our sample that had not disclosed 

inventions to VA for at least 5 years. This university did not disclose 

inventions to VA, as agreed, until prompted by VA’s technology transfer 

office late in fiscal year 2016. Responsible university officials said they 

had assumed the dually appointed researchers were disclosing the 

inventions to VA. According to VA officials, when the VA technology 

transfer office received a report from the university in fiscal year 2017 that 

covered 5 years of disclosures, VA learned it had not received 80 percent 

of the disclosures from that university for that period.17 VA officials said 

 16If a researcher publishes or presents research findings prior to filing a patent application, 

it can prevent the invention from ever being patented because the invention would no 

longer be considered novel. Specifically, VA’s 2017 policy on determination of rights for 

inventions and disclosures states that novelty-destroying public disclosure may occur 

when a description of an invention is published, demonstrated, sold, offered for sale or 

disclosed orally or in writing to a third party prior to filing a patent application. 

17The university also failed to submit semi-annual reports to VA, as called for in their 

agreement. University officials told us they were not certain how many years had passed 

without providing reports to VA, but VA agreed that they could conduct a review for a 5-

year period because older inventions might not be as valuable. To create the report 

university officials said they compared invention disclosures they received with a recent 

list of VA employees that VA provided.

VA Has Taken Steps to 

Make Universities Aware 

of VA Researchers and 

Disclosure Requirements
Page 12 GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

they had not contacted the university sooner because their technology 

transfer office had been understaffed until early in calendar year 2016. VA 

officials from the technology transfer office had not identified a similar 

problem of this magnitude with the other universities, including those in 

our sample.

According to our interviews with VA and university officials, some of VA’s 

university partners may not have been aware of which researchers were 

also VA employees because the universities’ lists of VA researchers were 

not current and universities generally relied on the researchers to disclose 

whether they were VA employees. Furthermore, in some cases, the 

university disclosure forms did not specifically ask whether the researcher 

also worked at VA. For example, two of the six forms used by universities 

in our sample did not specifically ask the researcher to indicate whether 

they were VA employees. Upon recognizing some shortcomings in 

universities’ disclosures to VA, the department provided current lists of 

VA researchers at affiliated VA medical centers to their respective 

universities in fiscal year 2017, and VA technology transfer officials said 

they intend to provide such updated lists to the universities semi-annually. 

VA officials said that universities may not be using these lists, but they will 

not know until time has elapsed. VA technology transfer officials said their 

site visits to VA medical centers—they conducted 26 visits in fiscal year 

2017—along with other communications with their counterparts at the 

universities should help the disclosure process.

VA has increased communication with universities since 2016 to help 

ensure that universities report information about commercialization 

activities for joint inventions, but universities’ reporting remained 

inconsistent as of January 2018, according to VA. Under the original 

agreements, such as the ones in our sample of eight agreements, 

universities have the exclusive right to license and commercialize joint 

inventions. VA’s awareness of the commercialization of such inventions 

depends on universities providing this information through annual reports, 

as required by the agreements. However, according to VA officials, prior 

to 2011, only about 20 percent of the 79 universities with which VA has 

agreements submitted annual reports. According to VA officials, VA made 

an effort to increase annual reporting, and by 2013 it was up to 80 

percent. The officials said, however, that the percentage of universities 

submitting annual reports dropped again after losing staff in the 

technology transfer office—the office retained only three staff in 

subsequent years until fiscal year 2017 when there were 11 staff, 

including 5 technology transfer specialists.

VA Increased 

Communication with 

Universities about 

Reporting 

Commercialization 

Activities but Has Not 

Ensured that Such 

Activities Are 

Consistently 

Reported
Page 13 GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

In addition, VA officials we interviewed said that there was some 

confusion among universities regarding when they needed to submit 

annual reports. For example, they said that some universities may not 

have understood whether they needed to provide annual reports during 

years when there was no new patenting or licensing activity. The officials 

said that this was at least part of the reason some universities did not 

submit annual reports. VA officials told us that they expect universities to 

provide annual reports even when there is no new patenting or licensing 

activity, and in fiscal year 2016 technology transfer officials e-mailed 

universities to clarify this expectation. The officials also said that in 

October 2016 they sent a letter to each of the 79 universities with which 

the department has agreements to remind universities to submit the 

required annual reports. Further, as stated earlier, VA staff made 26 visits 

to VA medical centers and universities in the first 8 months of fiscal year 

2017 to discuss reporting and disclosure requirements. However, VA 

reported that 24 percent of the 79 affiliated universities provided annual 

reports in fiscal year 2017 even after VA’s outreach. Because they did not 

always receive annual reports, VA officials said they were often not aware 

of a joint license until the university sent VA the first royalty check for a 

joint invention.18 VA officials said they plan to conduct audits to check the 

accuracy of university information.

Beginning in fiscal year 2015, VA began creating new agreements with 

universities to give VA enhanced responsibility in licensing and 

commercialization of joint inventions. By the end of fiscal year 2017, VA 

had new agreements in place with 11 of the 79 universities. Based on our 

review of 8 of the new agreements,19 VA will now, for the first time, have 

the option to take the lead in licensing joint inventions. For inventions for 

which VA does not take the lead role, under the new agreements, it will 

have the right to review and provide input on all joint licenses. This new 

provision improves VA’s awareness of any joint licenses created in the 

future. However, because original agreements did not include this 

 18Another reason that VA could not identify all licenses for joint inventions patented from 

2012 through 2017—a period for which we sought licenses—was because of problems 

with the software program it used to track inventions; as a result of these problems, 

officials said that the department could not provide us with complete information. The VA 

technology transfer office adopted a new software program to track inventions in 2014, 

and VA has been taking steps to customize it to be more useful and to better align with 

data from previous invention management systems, according to VA officials.

19As of April 2017, VA had eight agreements in place, which we reviewed. By November 

2017, VA had three more agreements in place, according to VA officials, but we did not 

review those. 
Page 14 GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

provision, VA will still need to rely on accurate and updated annual 

reports from universities for information on licenses negotiated under 

those agreements.

In addition, the new agreements do not improve or clarify language from 

the original agreements about what details need to be included in the 

annual reports. According to our analysis, these eight new agreements, 

similar to the original eight agreements we reviewed, do not contain 

details on the specific information and format in which to present the 

annual report. For example, both the original and four of the new 

agreements we reviewed require universities to provide an annual 

report,20 but four other new agreements state that the universities will 

provide annual reports upon request. The original agreements as well as 

all eight of the new agreements indicate that reports should include the 

status of all patent prosecution, commercial development, and licensing 

activity on joint inventions but do not explain whether an annual report is 

needed if there has been no commercialization activity. As noted above, 

VA officials said universities were confused about whether they were 

required to report to VA if they had no new activity in a given period; 

however, VA officials told us they still need reports in these situations.

Furthermore, based on our analysis of 12 annual reports from eight 

universities, the format and content of the reports has been inconsistent. 

Four universities submitted reports in a spreadsheet format; two 

universities submitted reports in portable document format (PDF); one 

university submitted a report in a Word format; and one submitted five 

different documents, including both PDF and spreadsheet. In addition to 

differences in format, the annual reports differed considerably in the 

content they provided—the more detailed annual reports included patent 

application numbers, patent expenses, the status of patent applications, 

and information about whether the patent had been licensed. In contrast, 

the less detailed annual reports did not provide any of this information on 

patents for the joint inventions. Moreover, one university only included 

active license agreements in its annual report, while other universities 

also included license agreements that were terminated. VA officials we 

interviewed agreed that the reports are not very detailed or standardized 

 20In the case of the four new agreements with annual reporting requirements, the 

requirement applies to the university if it is the lead party for commercialization of one or 

more VA joint inventions. If, however, VA is the lead party, the agency must provide an 

annual report to the university.
Page 15 GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

but said they would like to eventually standardize the annual report format 

and content so they can use the reports to track and audit joint inventions

The differences in annual reports exist because VA has not provided the 

universities with a standardized method for reporting, including the format 

that should be used for the annual reports and the content to include in 

them. Under federal standards for internal control, management should 

design control activities to achieve objectives and respond to risks. Such 

control activities include providing a standardized method that guides 

universities in fulfilling VA’s reporting requirements to ensure the 

objectives of the program are being achieved. Without providing a 

standardized method that clearly guides universities in fulfilling VA’s 

reporting requirements for these annual reports, including their format and 

content, the department will not be able to ensure detailed and 

standardized annual reports that include details about licenses and 

royalties. VA officials said that they were working on a template for 

universities to use in reporting on commercialization activities for joint 

inventions. However it is not clear whether the template would inform 

universities of VA’s requirements to submit an annual report even if they 

had no new commercialization activity in a given period.

VA manages a research program unique within the federal government in 

that most of its researchers are dually appointed to universities, and their 

inventions are jointly owned by VA and the universities, which typically 

take the lead on commercialization activities. While VA has taken steps to 

educate researchers about requirements for researchers and universities 

to disclose inventions to VA, VA officials reported that researchers have 

not consistently done so, because they did not always fully understand 

the policy. Given that VA has not made its online training on disclosure 

policy mandatory, the policy’s importance may not be clear to 

researchers. Also, because researchers do not make discoveries every 

year, and the process of disclosure is not routine, taking such training 

once may not be sufficient. Without requiring researchers to take online 

training on the invention disclosure process annually, researchers may 

not be fully informed about the requirement to disclose inventions, which 

can result in lost technology transfer opportunities as well as lost royalties 

for VA if the inventions are not disclosed.

VA has also taken steps to improve communication with universities to 

increase reporting of commercialization activities, but said that such 

reporting by universities is inconsistent, and VA may not have adequate 

information to account for all of its licenses and royalties. Without 

Conclusions
Page 16 GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

providing a standardized method that clearly guides universities in 

fulfilling VA’s reporting requirements for these annual reports, including 

their format and content, the department will not be able to ensure 

detailed and standardized annual reports.

We are making the following two recommendations to VA:

The Under Secretary of Health should make VA’s online training on 

invention disclosure mandatory for researchers and require that it be 

completed annually. (Recommendation 1)

The Under Secretary of Health should provide a standardized method 

that guides universities in fulfilling VA’s reporting requirements for these 

annual reports, including their format and content. (Recommendation 2)

We provided a draft of this report to the Department of Veterans Affairs 

for review and comment. In written comments reproduced in appendix II, 

VA agreed with our recommendations. Specifically, for our first 

recommendation, VA said it will develop a plan to ensure its researchers 

complete online technology transfer training on invention disclosure 

annually. Furthermore, the plan will contain contingencies for those who 

do not meet the requirements. The department expects to issue a training 

requirement, train staff, and also demonstrate training is done by 

September 2019. In addition, for our second recommendation, VA said it 

will develop a standardized method that guides universities in fulfilling 

VA’s reporting requirements for the university technology transfer annual 

reports. VA has a target completion date of December 2018. VA also 

provided technical comments, which we incorporated as appropriate.

Recommendations for 

Executive Action

Agency Comments
Page 17 GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

As agreed with your offices, unless you publicly announce the contents of 

this report earlier, we plan no further distribution until 30 days from the 

report date. At this time, we will send copies of this report to the 

appropriate congressional committees, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, 

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 neumannj@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 

the report are listed in appendix III.

John Neumann

Director

Natural Resources and Environment
Appendix I: Department of Veterans Affairs 

Commercialization Process, Revenue, and 

Total Joint Patents with Universities

Page 18 GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

The process for commercializing a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) 

invention can take several avenues. Generally a university takes the lead 

on inventions of dual appointees who work for VA and a university, and 

VA researchers who are not dually appointed rely on VA to patent and 

license their inventions. Also, VA can take the lead on joint inventions, for 

example, if the university is not interested in ownership. (see fig. 2).

Figure 2: Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Process for Commercialization of Joint Inventions by Researchers Working for 

VA and a University

Note: VA’s research program is unique in that the majority of VA’s researchers are dually appointed—

they work at VA and at another research institution, such as a university or medical college. In cases 

where researchers are dually appointed, their inventions are subject to agreements between VA and 

the university and are considered joint inventions. 

VA received about $316,000 in royalties from 45 licenses for its 

inventions in fiscal year 2016 (see table 1). VA has U.S. and foreign 

patents. From calendar years 2000 through November 2017, the U.S. 

Patent and Trademark Office has granted VA 82 patents for which VA is 

the sole assignee, according to VA officials. Also, table 2 shows by 

university the breakdown of the 206 patents for which VA shares 

ownership with an affiliate.

Appendix I: Department of Veterans Affairs

Commercialization Process, Revenue, and

Total Joint Patents with Universities
Appendix I: Department of Veterans Affairs 

Commercialization Process, Revenue, and 

Total Joint Patents with Universities

Page 19 GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

Table 1: Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Royalties from Licenses in Fiscal Year 2016

VA affiliated university 

sharing the license

Number of licenses 

with royalties 

Amount of 

VA royalties

Baylor College of Medicine 1 $1,988 

Boston College 1 2,212

Cleveland Clinic 1 3,403

Stanford University 11 90,285 

University of California 15 64,864 

University of Illinois 1 2,311 

University of Iowa 1 1,500

University of Michigan 1 773 

University of Minnesota 1 2,447 

University of Pittsburgh 2 3076

University of Southern Florida Research 

Foundation

2 1,203 

Virginia Commonwealth University 1 12,750 

Wayne State University 1 252

Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation 1 10,940 

Subtotal 40 $198,006 

VA sole licenses $118,548 

Total royalties to VA 45 $316,554 

Source: GAO based on Veterans Affairs data | GAO-18-325

Table 2: The Number of Joint Patents Owned by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Universities

Affiliated university

Number of patents 

shared with VA

1 University of California 44

2 Oregon Health and Science University 40

3 Stanford University 17

4 University of South Florida 13

5 University of Maryland, Baltimore 9

6 University of Miami 9

7 Emory University 8

8 University of Arkansas 6

9 University of Illinois 5

10 University of Minnesota 5

11 Case Western Reserve University 4

12 Harvard College 4
Appendix I: Department of Veterans Affairs 

Commercialization Process, Revenue, and 

Total Joint Patents with Universities

Page 20 GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

Affiliated university

Number of patents 

shared with VA

13 Tulane University 4

14 University of Utah 4

15 Loma Linda University 3

16 University of Iowa 3

17 University of Pittsburgh 3

18 Medical University of South Carolina 2

19 New York University 2

20 University of Arizona 2

21 University of Florida 2

22 University of Michigan 2

23 University of Notre Dame 2

24 Vanderbilt University 2

25 Washington University in St. Louis 2

26 Wayne State University 2

27 Duke University 1

28 George Washington University 1

29 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 1

30 University of Alabama at Birmingham 1

31 University of Pennsylvania 1

32 University of Texas 1

33 Virginia Commonwealth University 1

Total 206

Source: GAO based on Veterans Affairs data | GAO-18-325

Note: In addition to the patents in this table, which show the number of U.S. patents that VA shared 

with individual universities, VA shared 78 U.S. patents with 2 or more other entities, at least one of 

which is a university. VA also has sole ownership of other U.S. patents and patents in other countries.
Appendix II: Comments from the Department 

of Veterans Affairs

Page 21 GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

Appendix II: Comments from the Department 

of Veterans Affairs
Appendix II: Comments from the Department 

of Veterans Affairs

Page 22 GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research
Appendix III: GAO Contacts and Staff 

Acknowledgments

Page 23 GAO-18-325 Veterans Affairs Research

John Neumann, (202) 512-3841 or neumannj@gao.gov.

In addition to the contact named above, Rob Marek (Assistant Director), 

Daniel Semick (Analyst in Charge), Ivelisse Aviles, Navaiyoti Barkakati, 

Kevin Bray, Ellen Fried, Matthew Hunter, Cynthia Saunders, Dan C. 

Royer, Ardith Spence, and Kiki Theodoropoulos made key contributions 

to this report.

Appendix III: GAO Contacts and Staff 

Acknowledgments

GAO Contact

Staff 

Acknowledgments

(101152)
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