Rhonda Kivlin

Partners Engaged in Extramural Reporting

Competition Submission

Lack of adequate staffing, inadequate training, costs of reporting and compliance, and many other 

factors are often cited as barriers to Bayh-Dole reporting compliance. Many technology transfer 

professionals are given responsibility for Bayh-Dole compliance, but are not given any tools to 

understand how to achieve it. These professionals, who often have no colleagues within their 

organization to train them, are often left with trying to self-educate, are baffled by the process, and are 

potentially (and unknowingly) putting their institution’s intellectual property at risk. 

Many of us have been sounding the alarm about the need for comprehensive education around BayhDole compliance requirements. The lack of education, however, is not the only issue. The diversity of 

users can create a barrier to any well-developed education plan. Some users are very “light” users, in 

small business or small universities without a technology transfer framework who might only have a few 

instances annually of reporting obligations. This light user has different educational needs than a 

“heavy” user, who may have the resources of a technology transfer office and a larger portfolio of 

technologies to report. 

So how do you meet the needs of these different users? 

My solution is three-pronged: 

1) Create a Bayh-Dole compliance “Wizard” that can walk a user through the basic steps they 

need to report inventions. This is less education-focused and more “how-to.” 

2) Create comprehensive training modules for Bayh-Dole compliance that users can access at 

will to learn about the Bayh-Dole Act, the reporting process, ongoing/annual responsibilities, 

etc. 

3) Confer a designation to the user who has successfully completed all training modules: 

Certified iEdison Compliance Professional or similar title. 

First, a simple BD Wizard can be an entry point to small businesses and universities who don’t have an 

established tech transfer office to handle reporting. The Wizard can be easily accessible and simple 

enough to walk a user through the steps to reporting an invention. In many cases, these users are using 

iEdison infrequently and need to refer back to reporting instructions in order to properly comply. The 

Wizard serves as a “How-to” resource for those who don’t want or need more in-depth education. 

Second, detailed and comprehensive training modules are developed to cover all aspects of the BayhDole Act and processes for compliance. These modules can be course-specific: Invention Reporting, 

Electing Title, Patent Reporting, Utilization, Best Practices, etc. A map of coursework can inform a new 

user of how to get started, while an experienced user can access modules specific to their knowledge 

gaps.

The key to this solution, however, is in Step 3: creating a professional designation as an incentive to 

participate in and complete the training modules. A professional certification that designates the user as 

someone with in-depth knowledge of Bayh-Dole and compliance regulations will appeal to career 
technology transfer professionals who want to further their career. This designation identifies users as 

being experts in their field, and can be important aspects of their professional development. Receiving a 

professional designation will incentivize more users to complete the training, resulting in more 

knowledgeable users and higher compliance rates.