[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 15, Volume 3]
[Revised as of January 1, 2004]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 15CFR1160.22]

[Page 405]
 
                  TITLE 15--COMMERCE AND FOREIGN TRADE
 
      CHAPTER XI--TECHNOLOGY ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
 
PART 1160_PRODUCTIVITY, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION--Table of Contents
 
               Subpart B_Strategic Partnership Initiative
 
Sec. 1160.22  Goal of the Strategic Partnership initiative.

    (a) This new initiative is designed to provide the private sector 
with the opportunity to discuss the possible benefits of forming 
Strategic Partnerships among firms representing the entire food chain of 
specific technologies. By focusing on a specific technology, these 
partnerships will have the capability to integrate the innovation 
activities for a broad range of applications made possible by that 
technology. The integrative function differentiates this initiative from 
earlier Department of Commerce initiatives which deal with only one 
stage of the commercial process. Strategic Partnerships differ from 
traditional cooperative R&D consortia which are composed primarily of 
competitors who cooperate only in the early precompetitive stage of 
innovation. In contrast, Strategic Partnerships are made up generally of 
noncompeting companies (see Sec. 1160.21(a)) and are capable of 
accomplishing the entire process of innovation working on a proprietary 
basis.
    (b) The immediate goal of this initiative is to hold workshops upon 
a request from the private sector in key technologies at which the 
stakeholder industries in the food chain for each technology will have a 
chance to consider potential applications of the technology, current 
status of the technology, what R&D needs to be performed, the 
competitive position of U.S. industry in that technology, including the 
status of foreign competition, and the ways in which U.S. stakeholders 
might organize themselves to maximize commercial benefits. The ultimate 
outcome of such workshops will be entirely at the discretion of the 
private sector and may include the formation of one or more Strategic 
Partnerships, other types of multifirm ventures, or no action at all. 
The Department will not undertake to form specific partnerships. This 
will be solely at the discretion of the participants.

[56 FR 41282, Aug. 20, 1991; 56 FR 51257, Oct. 10, 1991]