With the enactment of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 came new provisions to the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR): 37 CFR 401.14, that stipulated the need for all federal grantees and contractors to report on activities involving the disposition of certain intellectual property rights that result from federally-funded research. In order to facilitate compliance with provisions of this federal law for cases in which inventions, patents, and licenses have resulted from federal funding agreements, an Internet-based system has been developed. The system, Interagency Edison (iEdison), provides recipients of federal funding agreements with the means to learn more about the Bayh-Dole Act and its regulations, as well as to comply with regulations by submitting invention, patent and invention utilization reports to any of a number of federal agencies through a single user interface.
When the Bayh-Dole legislation was enacted, electronic transmission of information was not possible; therefore use of iEdison is not mandatory. At the same time, however, iEdison has been designed to include features that will streamline grantee/contractor administrative tasks. The time and resources now involved in preparing hard copy documents for submission can be completely obviated by employment of iEdison. Virtually all document requirements mandated in regulation can be submitted electronically through the iEdison interface. Further, active users of the system are given timely reminders of actions that must be taken to fulfill reporting requirements for each subject invention. In anticipation of grantee/contractor administrative tasks, the system also provides a variety of reports. These benefits aside, perhaps the most compelling benefit of the iEdison system is that it allows for the reporting through a single interface to many different federal agencies. The burden of having to report separately inventions funded by different grants or contracts from different agencies has been replaced by a single iEdison user interface that supports a common way to report to a majority of federal agencies.
Interagency Edison is an Interactive Relational Database
iEdison involves technology whereby both federal staff from various participating agencies, and staff from the grantee/contractor organization access a common file in a real-time interactive setting. With the proper authentication through username/password an other means complete confidentiality of transmission of information is ensured, as information is provided to add or modify individual Extramural Invention Reports (EIRs) and/or patent and utilization information associated with that EIR. By similarly secure means, each authenticated user will be able to query the iEdison database to generate reports for their organization. Once information has been entered, it will be immediately available to federal staff. They will be able to acknowledge data entry and quickly act upon time sensitive issues. Such acknowledgements will also be reflected immediately in the system: changes that can be seem by users in specific "government status" portions of the interface. This mirroring of data ensures more timely, less paper and resource intensive, accurate reporting of data from either the grantee/contractor organization or the federal agencies.
