Intellectual Property: Additional Agency Actions Can Improve Assistance to Small Businesses and Inventors
Fast Facts
With small businesses creating about two-thirds of U.S. jobs, they need help protecting their intellectual property—creative works or ideas that can be shared, re-created, emulated, or manufactured. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and Small Business Administration offer help.
However, the Patent Office doesn't evaluate whether its small business programs work as intended, and efforts to foster better collaboration between the agencies in this area are incomplete.
We made 4 recommendations to help the agencies build on existing efforts to help small businesses and inventors protect intellectual property.
Examples of Intellectual Property Rights Contained in a Guitar
Highlights
What GAO Found
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) offers multiple programs that help small businesses and inventors with acquiring intellectual property protections, which can help protect creative works or ideas. These programs, such as the Inventors Assistance Center, are aimed at assisting the public, especially small businesses and inventors, with intellectual property protections. Several stakeholders GAO interviewed said that USPTO programs have been helpful, but they were also not aware of some USPTO programs. Although these programs individually evaluate how they help small businesses and inventors, the agency does not collect and evaluate overall information on whether these programs are effectively reaching out to and meeting the needs of these groups. Under federal internal control standards, an agency should use quality information to achieve its objectives. Without an agency-wide approach to collect information to help evaluate the extent to which its programs serve small businesses and inventors, USPTO may not have the quality information needed to fully evaluate the effectiveness of its outreach and assistance for these groups and thus make improvements where necessary.
Although the Small Business Administration (SBA) coordinates with USPTO through targeted efforts to provide intellectual property training to small businesses, it has not fully implemented some statutory requirements that can further enhance this coordination. While SBA and the Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) coordinate with USPTO programs at the local level to train small businesses on intellectual property protection (see figure), this coordination is inconsistent. For example, two of the 12 SBDCs that GAO interviewed reported working primarily with USPTO to help small businesses protect their intellectual property, but the other 10 did not. The Small Business Innovation Protection Act of 2017 requires SBA and USPTO to coordinate and build on existing intellectual property training programs, and requires that SBA's local partners, specifically the SBDCs, provide intellectual property training, in coordination with USPTO. SBA officials reported that they are in the process of implementing requirements of this act. Incorporating selected leading practices for collaboration, such as documenting the partnership agreement and clarifying roles and responsibilities, could help SBA and USPTO fully and consistently communicate their existing resources to their partners and programs, enabling them to refer these resources to small businesses and inventors.
Figure: The Small Business Administration (SBA) and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Coordinate at the Local Level, but Are Inconsistent
Why GAO Did This Study
Small businesses employ about half of the U.S. private workforce and create approximately two-thirds of the nation's jobs. For many small businesses, intellectual property aids in building market share and creating jobs. Among the federal agencies assisting small businesses with intellectual property are USPTO, which grants patents and registers trademarks, and SBA, which assists small businesses on a variety of business development issues, including intellectual property.
GAO was asked to review resources available to help small businesses and inventors protect intellectual property, and their effectiveness. This report examines, among other things, (1) the extent to which USPTO evaluates the effectiveness of its efforts to assist small businesses and (2) SBA's coordination with USPTO to assist small businesses. GAO analyzed agency documents and interviewed officials who train and assist small businesses. GAO also interviewed stakeholders, including small businesses, and, among other things, reviewed federal internal control standards and selected leading practices for enhancing interagency collaboration.
Recommendations
GAO is making four recommendations, including that USPTO develop an agency-wide approach to evaluate the effectiveness of its efforts to help small businesses and inventors, and that SBA document its partnership agreement with USPTO and clarify roles and responsibilities for coordinating with USPTO to provide training. Both agencies agreed with GAO's recommendations.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Patent and Trademark Office | The Director of USPTO should develop an agency-wide approach to collect information to help evaluate outreach efforts and overall effectiveness of USPTO services aimed at assisting small businesses and inventors that seek to obtain intellectual property protections. (Recommendation 1) |
USPTO took several actions in response to this recommendation. According to information USPTO provided in April 2021, USPTO implemented a system to uniformly collect data on, and track and report on, agency trainings and services for small businesses and inventors. More specifically, USPTO officials provided documentation showing how the system tracks training, attendance, location, completions, and USPTO attendance goals for each location. Further, in April 2021, USPTO officials assigned a person- the Managing Assistant Regional Director- to coordinate the collection and entry of data in the system. USPTO's "Classification and Performance Management Record" states that the duties for the Managing Assistant Regional Director position include coordinating "across all relevant business units the collection...of training and outreach data to support a comprehensive system that collects data on...agency training and services for...small businesses and inventors." Lastly, in April 2021, USPTO included outreach goals and the efficient operation of the tracking and measurement system as an element in the performance plans of the USPTO's Regional Office Directors. USPTO's Fiscal Year 2021 Consolidated Outreach Plan for Regional Offices and the Eastern Region Outreach Office provided a definition for small business concerns, instructions on how to develop outreach goals, and office targets for each of their regional offices. As a result of these efforts, USPTO can better determine whether the needs of small businesses and inventors are met and, based on that information, where it can make improvements to its programs or better target agency efforts.
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| Small Business Administration | As SBA develops the partnership agreement as required by the Small Business Innovation Protection Act of 2017, the Associate Administrator for SBA's Office of Entrepreneurial Development should document how SBA and USPTO will coordinate and leverage existing resources. (Recommendation 2) |
SBA concurred with this recommendation and took several actions in response. In September 2022, SBA provided documentation of the final partnership agreement with USPTO, signed by both agencies in August 2022 and to remain in place for three years. The partnership agreement addresses how SBA and USPTO will enhance coordination and better leverage existing resources to fulfill the requirements of the act (Pub. L. No. 115-259, 132 Stat. 3664 (2018)). For example, SBA and USPTO will jointly identify intellectual property education and training programs and leverage training materials already developed for the education of inventors and small business concerns. SBA and USPTO will also jointly develop high-quality training, including in-person or modular training sessions, for small business concerns relating to domestic and international protection of intellectual property. As a result of these efforts, SBA can help small businesses access more consistent assistance and training across regions to protect their intellectual property.
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| Small Business Administration | As SBA develops the partnership agreement as required by the Small Business Innovation Protection Act of 2017, the Associate Administrator for SBA's Office of Entrepreneurial Development should develop ways to track SBDC implementation of intellectual property training with USPTO. (Recommendation 3) |
SBA concurred with this recommendation and took several actions in response. According to information SBA provided in May 2022, SBA included language in the 2022 SBDC Funding Opportunity Announcement that required each SBDC lead center to create a formal intellectual property training program for its regional network of SBDCs, and advised them of USPTO assistance. The funding opportunity announcement also required SBDCs to report intellectual property training outlines, programs, classes and metrics in SBA's data collection system. In addition, the funding opportunity announcement required SBDC lead centers to submit semi-annual and annual reports of the results and impact of the intellectual property training program. Lastly, SBA provided documentation of the final partnership agreement with USPTO, signed by both agencies in August 2022 and to remain in place for three years. As a result of these efforts, SBA is better positioned to provide small businesses with access to appropriate resources to acquire intellectual property protection and therefore access capital, build market share, and create jobs.
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| Small Business Administration | As SBA develops the partnership agreement as required by the Small Business Innovation Protection Act of 2017, the Associate Administrator for SBA's Office of Entrepreneurial Development should clarify the office's roles and responsibilities in helping SBDCs provide intellectual property training with USPTO. (Recommendation 4) |
SBA concurred with this recommendation and took several actions in response. In September 2022, SBA provided documentation of the final partnership agreement with USPTO, signed by both agencies in August 2022 and to remain in place for three years. The partnership agreement clarifies SBA's role and responsibilities in helping SBDCs provide intellectual property training. Specifically, it listed a number of SBA undertakings, including (1) providing USPTO with information about the SBA's programs and services, (2) coordinating small business requests for intellectual property training and assistance through the SBA Office of Small Business Development Centers, and (3) developing cooperative agreements with the SBDCs that require them to create a formal intellectual property training program for its state and regional network. As a result of these efforts, SBA can help its partners leverage USPTO resources to better assist small businesses with intellectual property.
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