About iEdison

iEdison (or interagency Edison) is an online, relational database designed around the reporting requirements of the Bayh-Dole Act and its implementing regulations. It allows recipients of federal research funding to report subject inventions and patents to the federal funding agency that issued the funding award. Several federal agencies use iEdison, so this single online resource lets funding recipients report to many different funding agencies. The system is used by both the funding recipients to report information and documentation into iEdison as well as by the funding agencies to receive and review the information and documentation submitted.

History

iEdison was originally developed as “Edison” by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1995.  Two years later, NIH began offering iEdison to other agencies and changed the name to “interagency Edison” or “iEdison”.  In 2018, after NIST's findings in the Green Paper, Unleashing American Innovation, available here and the U.S. National Academies' recommendation that iEdison be modernized and transferred to the Department of Commerce, the interagency community agreed that the iEdison system should be transferred to NIST. NIST was a natural choice to redesign and manage iEdison as the agency that issues the Bayh-Dole regulations and co-chairs the National Science and Technology Council’s Lab-to-Market subcommittee. NIST collected agency and funding recipients' needs for the new iEdison system through engagement with the Interagency Working Group for Bayh-Dole and a Request for Information published in the Federal Register on December 19, 2019. NIST began development of the new iEdison system in December of 2019, and the new system launched on August 9, 2022. 

Capabilities

iEdison notifies funding recipients of various Bayh-Dole requirements and allows them to complete Bayh-Dole related reporting including:

• Subject inventions (as defined in the Bayh-Dole Act and implementing regulations) to the federal funding agency, including (but not limited to)
  • the inventors
  • the funding agency and award number
  • whether the invention has been publicly disclosed
  • a sufficient description of the invention
• Their title election decision
• Patents filed to protect the subject inventions, including
  • confirmatory licenses memorializing the government’s rights in the invention
  • evidence of government support clauses in the patent application/patent stating the government’s rights
  • decisions not to pursue (or continue to pursue) protection of the invention
• Utilization reports updating the funding agency on details of the invention’s licensing and commercialization activity
• Requests for
  • extensions of time to elect title
  • extensions of time to file initial patent applications
  • extensions of time to file a non-provisional patent application if your initial patent application was a provisional application (2018 updated regulations)
  • requests to assign rights in a subject invention to an inventor or third party
  • domestic manufacturing waivers
  • AND more!

Features

The new iEdison includes many new features, such as:

• An updated and modernized user interface
• Expanded notification system informing users of what information is needed in the iEdison system and reminders of the due dates of actions that need to be taken under Bayh-Dole and to retain and maintain rights to an invention
• Ability to communicate with the funding agency within the iEdison Invention Report
• An integration with USPTO, which allows for certain information in iEdison Invention Reports to be automatically updated
• Ability to select pre- or post- 2018 regulations applicable to your invention
• Increased report submission capability
• New pre-built standard reports on iEdison data, including reports on specific grant numbers or inventions
• Ability to build custom iEdison reports and save for future use
• Increased API functionality, including the ability to upload attachments via API
• Graphic depiction of invention as well as associated patents and utilization reports
• AND more!