PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Read twice and referred to the Committee on Judiciary.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · May 11, 1999
Technology Transfer Act of 1999 - Amends Federal patent law to revise Federal restrictions on the licensing of federally owned inventions. Requires a license applicant to make a commitment to achieve practical utilization of the invention within a reasonable time. Requires such a license to include provisions: (1) retaining a nontransferable, irrevocable, paid-up license for the Federal agency to practice the invention or have the invention practiced throughout the world by or on behalf of the U.S. Government; (2) requiring periodic reporting on use of the invention by the licensee only to the extent necessary to enable the Federal agency to determine whether the licensee is complying with license terms; and (3) empowering the Federal agency to terminate the license if the licensee has been found by a competent authority to have violated the Federal antitrust laws in connection with its performance under the license agreement.Requires a Federal agency to treat any required periodic invention utilization report as privileged and confidential commercial and financial information obtained from a person, and not subject to public disclosure.Prohibits an agency from granting an exclusive or partially exclusive license on a federally-owned invention unless: (1) it has provided 15 days' public notice and considered all comments received (unless the license is for an invention made under a cooperative research and development (R&D) agreement); and (2) the person requesting the license has supplied to the agency a plan for development and-or marketing of the invention.Amends provisions commonly known as "the Bayh-Dole Act" with regard to Government acquisition of the rights of a private party to a federally owned invention when a Federal employee is a coinventor of any invention made with a nonprofit organization, small business firm, or a non-Federal inventor. Authorizes the Federal agency employing such coinventor, for the purpose of consolidating rights in the invention and expediting its development, to: (1) license or assign whatever rights it may acquire in the invention to the nonprofit organization, small business firm, or non-Federal inventor; or (2) acquire any rights in the invention from the nonprofit organization, small business firm, or non-Federal inventor, but only to the extent the party from whom the rights are acquired voluntarily enters into the transaction and no other transaction under such Act is conditioned on such acquisition.Authorizes each Federal agency to acquire rights for and administer to the Federal Government royalties in any federally owned invention in order to facilitate its licensing, but only to the extent the party from whom the rights are acquired voluntarily enters into the transaction.
People & committees
Sen. Hatch, Orrin G. [R-UT] · R–UT
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Judiciary.
Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S5041-5042)
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.
No related bills are listed in this snapshot. This does not establish whether the proposal has appeared in earlier Congresses.
Source last updated: Aug 10, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
AI Conversation Starters
Choose a perspective, copy a prompt, and paste it into your preferred AI. Each prompt includes the bill version and available official source links, and asks for counterarguments as well as supporting evidence.
Analyze S.999 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
Examine S.999 through a progressive lens, focusing on fairness, access, economic inequality, and effects on vulnerable communities. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and distinguish stated goals from demonstrated outcomes.
Examine S.999 through a conservative lens, focusing on fiscal responsibility, institutional stability, federalism, and the scope of government. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and any provisions that challenge this perspective.
Examine S.999 through a civil-liberties and limited-government lens. Consider individual rights, privacy, voluntary choice, accountability, and government power. Explain tradeoffs, possible safeguards, and the strongest counterarguments without assuming the proposal is beneficial or harmful.