When a university or company invents something using federal research funding, the Bayh-Dole Act gives them the right to keep it. So why do about one in five choose not to? GAO’s April 2026 technology transfer report (GAO-26-107971) provides the most detailed public accounting of this question to date, drawing on five years of invention disclosure data from 30 federal agencies covering fiscal years 2020 through 2024. The data reveals a practical picture of how institutions make IP decisions—one that has more to do with commercial realism than with any failure of the incentive structure.