I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 6684 
To require the Comptroller General to submit a report on the disclosure 
process for intellectual property created under a Federal grant, and 
for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 7, 2023 
Mr. NEGUSE (for himself and Mr. FLOOD) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To require the Comptroller General to submit a report on 
the disclosure process for intellectual property created 
under a Federal grant, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Improving Efficiency 
to Increase Competition Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. GAO STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF BAYH-DOLE ACT 
REGULATIONS ON CONTRACTORS IN THE 
UNITED STATES. 
(a) REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than 180 days 
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comp-
troller General of the United States shall brief the relevant 
committees, with a report to follow on a mutually agreed 
upon date that is not later than 1 year after the date of 
the enactment of this Act, that reviews the implementation 
of chapter 18 of title 35, United States Code, (commonly 
referred to as the Bayh-Dole Act), specifically with regard 
to the requirements under that chapter and implementing 
regulations that a contractor under a funding agreement 
with the Federal Government must follow with regard to 
patent disclosure. The report shall include, to the extent 
practicable, information on the following: 
(1) The percentage of inventions that are not 
elected by contractors to retain within the time pe-
riod provided following the disclosure of an invention 
under part 401 of title 37, Code of Federal Regula-
tions. 
(2) After any automatic extension has been 
granted and in a case in which a contractor requests 
an additional extension, the number of time exten-
sions that are granted by Federal agencies for dis-
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closure, election, and filing and the average response 
time by each agency for any such extension. 
(3) How the reporting requirements in such 
chapter impact the ability of a contractor to compete 
with foreign competitors. 
(4) How the Government uses Federal report-
ing under such chapter by contractors and suggested 
improvements to ensure there is an improved public- 
private partnership. 
(5) Barriers that Federal reporting require-
ments create for contractors to develop inventions. 
(6) The time and effort institutions of higher 
education must use for the management and report-
ing required under such chapter, including— 
(A) input from contractors with various 
sizes, budgets, geographical positions, and spe-
cialties; 
(B) with respect to any institution of high-
er education included in the report, a consider-
ation of the specific research designations for 
such institution, including R1 and R2; and 
(C) how such contractors vary on the their 
ability to efficiently comply with the require-
ments under such chapter. 
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(7) Difficulties contractors encounter in using 
the iEdison system and recommendations to address 
these difficulties. 
(8) If any other Federal agency does not use 
the patent reporting system deployed by the Na-
tional Institute of Standards and Technology, com-
monly known as iEdison, whether such agency would 
benefit from using a singular standard Federal re-
porting system and whether such agency can effec-
tively standardize reporting requirements in order to 
streamline processes required by contractors. 
(9) The number of disclosure systems used 
throughout the Federal Government, listed by what 
system is used by each Federal agency, and the var-
ious disclosure requirements made by each such 
agency. 
(b) DEFINITIONS.—In this Act: 
(1) ABILITY.—The term ‘‘ability’’ means time, 
resources, staff, and any other metric determined 
necessary for compliance under the contract require-
ments described in the Bayh Dole Act, including any 
regulation issued under such Act. 
(2) CONTRACTOR; FEDERAL AGENCY; FUNDING 
AGREEMENT.—The terms ‘‘contractor’’, ‘‘Federal 
agency’’, and ‘‘funding agreement’’ have the mean-
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ing given those terms in section 201 of title 35, 
United States Code. 
(3) INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION.—The 
term ‘‘institution of higher education’’ has the 
meaning given that term in section 101(a) of the 
Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001). 
(4) RELEVANT COMMITTEES.—The term ‘‘rel-
evant committees’’ means the following: 
(A) The Committee on the Judiciary of the 
House of Representatives. 
(B) The Committee on Science, Space, and 
Technology of the House of Representatives. 
(C) The Committee on Education and the 
Workforce of the House of Representatives. 
(D) The Committee on the Judiciary of the 
Senate. 
(E) The Committee on Commerce, Science, 
and Transportation of the Senate. 
(F) The Committee on Health, Education, 
Labor and Pensions of the Senate. 
Æ 
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