15 U.S.C. § 2054 — Product safety information and research

(a) The Commission must: (1) maintain an Injury Information Clearinghouse to collect, investigate, analyze, and share injury data and information about the causes and prevention of death, injury, and illness connected with consumer products; (2) conduct studies and investigations it considers necessary about deaths, injuries, diseases, other health impairments, and economic losses from consumer-product accidents; (3) after publishing a proposed-rule notice for a product-safety rule, give public and private organizations or manufacturer groups administrative and technical help developing standards addressing the identified injury risk; and (4) when practicable and appropriate, considering its resources and priorities, give public and private organizations or manufacturer groups administrative and technical help developing product-safety standards and test methods. (b) The Commission may: (1) research and study consumer-product safety and ways to improve it; (2) test products and develop safety test methods and devices; and (3) provide training in product-safety investigations and test methods. (c) It may make grants or contracts with any person, including a government entity, to perform these functions. (d) If the federal contribution to an authorized information, research, or development activity is more than minimal, the Commission must require in the contract, grant, or other arrangement that all information, uses, processes, patents, and other developments resulting from the activity be available to the public without charge on a nonexclusive basis. This does not take away a person’s preexisting right to a patent, patent application, or invention.