NASA research results in hundreds of patents ever year in technologies ranging from aeronautical and chemistry to lasers and artificial intelligence.
In an effort to better protect and garner income from its patent portfolio, the agency said it was looking to buy Patent Analysis Software from Innography.
Innography offers a software-as-a-service that correlates patent data with company and litigation information to calculate relative patent strength in a specific technology area to support decisions on selecting and ranking patents for licensing or selling to generate income, according to NASA.
Such patent technology is needed by NASA now that it is looking to move its intellectual property further into the public realm. Certainly picking up additional cash won't hurt the agency either.
Layer 8 Extra: 10 NASA space technologies that may never see the cosmos
A year ago NASA took part in the first ever sale of a government patent license through a public auction of intellectual property. NASA teamed with intellectual property firm Ocean Tomo to handle the patent sale which reportedly netted $55 million. Whether or not NASA will conduct more auctions in the future remains to be seen but experts say such methods are a good way to get such advanced technology into the mainstream quicker.
But it's not like NASA has been shy about sharing technology in the past. NASA's Innovative Partners Program office lists a number of available technologies as well as success stories from companies who have licensed such research.
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