U.S. federal law mandates that all recipients of
federal grants or contracts must report details
of inventions and patents that have been made through
such awards. The regulations are stated at 37CFR
Section 401. To facilitate compliance with regulations,
in 1995 the National Institutes of Health developed
an on-line Extramural Invention Information Management
System, Edison. The system was named for the prolific
American inventor Thomas Alva Edison. The Edison
system was deployed in October 1995. It became the
first Web-based electronic system in the government to support
administrative requirements.
By 1997, when Edison had clearly
demonstrated the benefits of electronic reporting,
it became obvious that an even greater value could
be realized. Since all federal grantees and contractors
must report inventions made through funding agreements
to any federal agency, it made a lot of sense to
get such reports submitted through a single user
interface. This would streamline the reporting process
for the government's customers, leading to greater
compliance with the law.
And so, in 1997, with the addition
of the NSF and USAID, came the introduction of Interagency
Edison (iEdison). Through the iEdison single user
interface, inventions supported by any of these
three agencies could be reported. The data is partitioned
within the single iEdison database so that each
agency can oversee their invention reports. Since
1997, iEdison has grown to where now approximately
500 grantee or contractor organizations are registered
and using the system, and inventions supported by
any of 18 federal agencies can be reported through
the iEdison system!
IEdison offers several important
advantages for Bayh-Dole reporting compliance:
EXTRAMURAL INVENTION REPORTS
ARE HIGHLY TIME-SENSITIVE.
The status of the election of title
or patent application relating to a particular invention
needs to be known to the government agency and grantee
or contractor organization even to within one day.
iEdison updates records and reflects any updates
to the user in real time to give organizations great
flexibility in time-sensitive decisions.
EXTRAMURAL INVENTION REPORTS
REQUIRE TRACKING MANY INDEPENDENTLY TIMED EVENTS.
From the date of communication of
an invention within an organization's hierarchy,
through the patent and licensing process of every
invention in a grantee or contractor organization's
portfolio, staff must keep track of reporting status.
iEdison performs this critical task automatically.
Once an invention report is entered, a tickler system
is activated to automatically (and persistently)
remind the user of actions that must be taken. Grantee
and contractor organization staff will no longer
need to spend time on this chore.
EXTRAMURAL INVENTION REPORTING
DATA IS CONFIDENTIAL.
The grantee or contractor organization
must be able to rely on the confidentiality of all
information pertaining to its invention reports.
iEdison agencies recognize this absolute requirement.
iEdison's security ensures that only authorized
users are allowed access only to records from their
organizations.
EXTRAMURAL INVENTION REPORTING
INVOLVES THE GENERATION OF REPORTS WITHIN EVERY
ORGANIZATION.
Every organization wants reports
on its invention status or documentation of its
administrative actions. iEdison has a report generator
built in; these reports have become standard for
the iEdison community, and save staff time documenting
invention, patent, and utilization report information
for the entire portfolio, or only specific combinations
of data fields that may be needed for specific administrative
tasks.
EXTRAMURAL INVENTION REPORTING
MAY INVOLVE USE BY AN ORGANIZATION OF AN EXISTING
CUSTOMIZED DATABASE.
Some grantee or contractor organizations
have their own systems to track inventions that
have resulted from federal support. iEdison allows
organizations to submit data via binary upload.
The computer-to-computer bulk transfer
of data requires that the grantee or contractor
organization's database administrator or technical-support
specialist format the data destined for the iEdison
system in a specific way. An explanation of the
format is available here. Once the data is formatted,
it may be uploaded through the Internet browser.
These features have been part of
the iEdison system since it began in 1995, and reflect
the progressive architecture that has become the
standard for e-grants business between the federal
government and its extramural community. Access
to and controlled utilization of a common electronic
file by both the federal government and grantee
and contractor organizations characterize a number
of application, monitoring, and tracking activities
from the outset of a funding request through review,
award, and post-award grant and contract administration.
