&gt; 1. increases the potential for commercialization<p>I don&#x27;t get this. If an idea is good, monopoly is icing, but not required for its adoption. If say NREL comes up with a something that increases efficiency of something by 2%, I&#x27;d want all of America and potentially the world to use it.  If NIST finds a cheap way to make welds more robust and void free, I&#x27;d want every bridge, building and car to use these new techniques, not trapped in a patent monopoly.<p>&gt; 3. Further US manufacturing<p>Do US Gov patents require that manufacturing be in the US? Is government sponsored research an R&amp;D arm of industry or is it to undertake projects that _don&#x27;t_ have a direct economic payback or are too large or too risky?<p>What you say might be the &quot;correct answer&quot; but it isn&#x27;t one I find palatable.  The majority of government sponsored research should be open to all. In some circumstances I can see limiting it to people in the US and under even narrower circumstances, limiting it via a patent.