NASA Wants To Share Great Ideas

WASHINGTON -- NASA is seeking information from potential partners who could provide no-cost brokerage services for intellectual property
transactions, such as patent brokering, to help transfer NASA-owned
technologies into the U.S. marketplace.

"Technology transfer always has been an important objective of
America's aeronautics and space program," said NASA Chief
Technologist Bobby Braun at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We want
to accelerate the agency's efforts to get groundbreaking technologies
and innovations from development efforts out into commercial markets.
We're asking for information from broker services on how they might
help us do this, without any cost to the taxpayer."

This call for information builds on a pilot program by several NASA
field centers, started in 2008, to commercialize NASA-funded
technologies. The request for information is posted on the FedBizOps
website. The notice is available at:

http://tinyurl.com/26hycpf

NASA is looking to industry for input on what form these technology
transaction services might take, including ideas such as public
auctions, Internet-based agreements or other innovative concepts.
Partners would be compensated through a percentage of licensing
revenues from any transaction they broker.

This approach will add another tool to existing technology transfer
efforts, allowing NASA to effectively move its technology into the
marketplace. Goals for the project include promoting transparency of
NASA patent license transactions while enhancing development of
commercial industry.

A primary benefit of partnering for no-cost brokerage services is the
potential to make intellectual property licensing processes quicker
and easier, saving time and resources for small companies that may
have interest in NASA technologies and innovations.

NASA is a pioneer in federal government use of third-party
intellectual property brokerage services. This activity will
accelerate the agency's past success in this area. The program will
continue efforts to ensure easier access to NASA-patented technology
by U.S. private sector organizations while identifying and developing
complementary technology efforts across NASA's centers.

An example of successfully brokering NASA technology through a no-cost
brokerage partnership was the exclusive license for the Hilbert-Huang
Transform, composed of 10 U.S. patents and one domestic patent
application, which was part of a lot auctioned by Ocean Tomo Federal
Services LLC, in October 2008.

The agreement with DynaDx Corporation of Mountain View, Calif.,
licensed the Hilbert-Huang Transform, a NASA technology used to
analyze nonlinear, nonstationary signals. The technology was
available to the medical community to help in the diagnosis and
prediction of syndromes that affect the brain, such as stroke,
dementia and traumatic brain injury.

For information about the diagnostic aid developed as a result of a
public auction, visit:

http://go.usa.gov/cum

For more information about how NASA technologies and spinoffs are
providing benefits to public and the U.S. economy, visit:

http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/

For more information about NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/oct

Source: NASA