From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.5-pre1 (2020-06-20) on ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.8 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_50 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1 Date: 4 Feb 93 20:40:22 GMT From: darwin.sura.net!bogus.sura.net!howland.reston.ans.net!sol.ctr.columbia.ed u!eff!world!srctran@gatech.edu (Gregory Aharonian) Subject: Federal patents incentives and Ada reuse economics Message-ID: List-Id: Attached is a GAO report on serious economic problems with federal patent policy procedures as it relates to incentives to federal scientists. It illustrates the social and economic problems when it comes to technology transfer, including software reuse. The DoD's continual ignoring of the non-technical aspects of Ada reuse will result in the continual waste of millions of dollars in efforts such as DSRO, which have little basis in sound capitalistic business economics. ______________________________________________________________________________ TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER: BARRIERS LIMIT ROYALTY SHARING'S EFFECTIVENESS GAO/RCED-93-6 ABSTRACT Despite the introduction of royalty-sharing programs at government laboratories, federal scientists' interest in patenting has not increased. Many scientists said that the small financial rewards, such as those paid under some royalty-sharing programs, offer little incentive to patent. For example, 17 of 21 agencies GAO reviewed use royalty-sharing formulas that often pay an indivdual only a few hundred dollars for an invention. GAO also found inadequate financial controls over payments to inventors. In addition, agency management is using virtually all of the laboratory's share of invention income to cover the administrative costs of transferring federal technology to U.S. companies, meaning that the benefits of royalty sharing are not visible to other potential investors. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Single copies of the report are available for free from: U.S. General Accounting Office P.O. Box 6015 Gaithersburg, MD 20877 Cite the report number and title, and they will send you a copy. Gregory Aharonian Source Translation & Optimization -- ************************************************************************** Greg Aharonian Source Translation & Optimiztion P.O. Box 404, Belmont, MA 02178