BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 744 Page 1 Date of Hearing: May 4, 2011 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Felipe Fuentes, Chair AB 744 (John A. Perez) - As Introduced: February 17, 2011 Policy Committee: Business and Professions Vote: 6 - 0 Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: No Reimbursable: SUMMARY This bill establishes the Office of Intellectual Property (OIP) within the Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency, and requires the office to: 1)Develop a database to track specified information about intellectual property (IP) generated by state employees and state-funded research. 2)Establish guidelines, including specified elements, for state agencies to use in administering their IP. 3)Develop an outreach campaign informing state agencies of their rights and abilities concerning intellectual property. 4)Develop sample invention assignment agreements that state agencies may use to secure rights to potentially patentable items created by their employees using state resources. 5)Develop sample language for licenses or terms-of-use agreements to limit others' use of state agencies' IP. FISCAL EFFECT First-year GF costs in the range of $400,000 for the OIP to AB 744 Page 2 develop guidelines, a data base, outreach campaign, and sample language, and ongoing costs in the range of $300,000 assuming three staff for the office. COMMENTS 1)Rationale . This bill establishes the OIP to track state-funded inventions and establish guidelines for administering IP. This bill is in response to a report released by the State Auditor in 2000 and two other reports that found that the state is lacking in a system for tracking state-owned IP. According to the author, the state's disjointed system costs the state money. He argues that as technology advances, state agencies without sufficient knowledge of how to protect IP will become increasingly vulnerable to unauthorized use and inability to capitalize on reduced contracts costs or increasing revenue to the state. AB 744 is intended to set up the framework to determine what IP the state owns and informs state agencies of their rights and abilities to protect the state's IP. 2)Related Legislation . In 2007, AB 1456 (Mullin) would have created the OIP for purposes of identifying and providing policy guidance for state agency management of IP developed by state employees or with state funds. This bill was amended to address an unrelated issue. Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916) 319-2081