This indicator captures the results of ITA’s efforts to level the playing field for U.S. business by increasing the number of trade barriers reduced, removed, or prevented. The measure tends to fluctuate over time as the outcome (foreign governments agreeing to voluntarily honor trade agreement obligations or remove market access barriers) is dependent on actions by sovereign nations which are outside of direct U.S. control.

The Department of Commerce International Trade Administration (ITA) supports jobs for American workers and strengthens U.S. economic and national security by facilitating U.S. exports and inward investment. In fiscal years (FY) 2020 and 2021, ITA will increase the dollar value of U.S. exports and inward investment facilitated by 10 percent annually, while ensuring that over 75 percent of U.S. exporter clients assisted are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

This metric measures the degree to which a patent is correctly issued in compliance with all the requirements of Title 35 as well as the relevant case law at the time of issuance. A statutorily compliant office action includes all applicable rejections and any asserted rejection is correct in that the decision to reject is based on sufficient evidence to support a conclusion of unpatentability.

The Global Intellectual Property Academy (GIPA) offers training programs on protection, utilization and enforcement of IP rights, patents, trademarks, and copyrights. It is through the GIPA training programs that the USPTO is instrumental in achieving its objectives of advancing IP right policies and halting IP theft.

This indicator demonstrates that NIST consistently produces useful and relevant scientific and technical publications and is outcome-oriented. The "relative citation impact" indicator is the ratio of the average number of citations per publication (citation rata) for all NIST publications in a year to the average expected citation rate for similar publications in a large group of peer institutions in the world. Publications typically lag by a minimum of two years due to the time needed for research, writing, journal peer review, and publication processes. The average for U.S. institutions is about 1.3.

Number of industrial base surveys, data, and analysis distributed to federal agencies and critical sector

Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) was established by the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 and provides for day-for-day adjustment of patent term (i.e., the period of time a patent is in force) for certain USPTO administrative delays (“the 14-4-4-4-36 timeframes”) for certain patent applications.  The specified timeframes are to:  issue an Office Action within 14 months after application filing, respond to a reply or appeal within four months, act on the application within four months after a decision from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) or from a Federal court, and issue the patent within four months after payment of the issue fee. Additionally, a 36-month timeframe applies if the USPTO does not issue a patent within three years of the filing date or national stage commencement, with certain exceptions.  Further, time consumed by interference or derivation proceedings, delays caused by placing the application under a secrecy order under 35 U.S.C. 181, or time consumed by a successful appellate review may result in positive patent term adjustment (PTA). Any positive PTA is offset by any period that an applicant failed to engage in reasonable efforts to conclude prosecution. This measure reports the PTA for all remaining inventory.

Dollars leveraged (contracts and financing) through minority business export activity as a result of supplemental Global Pathways and Advanced Manufacturing grants from MBDA that support U.S. exports and manufacturing

This metric measures the degree to which a patent is correctly issued in compliance with all the requirements of Title 35 as well as the relevant case law at the time of issuance. A statutorily compliant office action includes all applicable rejections and any asserted rejection is correct in that the decision to reject is based on sufficient evidence to support a conclusion of unpatentability.

This metric measures the degree to which a patent is correctly issued in compliance with all the requirements of Title 35 as well as the relevant case law at the time of issuance. A statutorily compliant office action includes all applicable rejections and any asserted rejection is correct in that the decision to reject is based on sufficient evidence to support a conclusion of unpatentability.