Kurt G. Hammerle JSC Office Of the Chief Counsel Intellectual Property Attorney 20 January Got Ideas?- Protecting and Reporting Inventions
What is Intellectual Property? 2 Patents Trademarks ® Copyrights © Trade Secrets Industrial Designs
What is Patentable? 3 U.S. Law: “[A]ny new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof” U.S. Supreme Court: “Anything under the sun made by man”- Diamond v. Chakrabarty
How to Protect Inventions 4 Keep It Private Restrictive Markings and Cover Sheets Passwords and Encryption for and mobile electronic storage devices Non-Disclosure Agreements outside NASA Report inventions as soon as possible, once “conception” is complete
When to Report Inventions 5 Once conception is complete Building and testing the idea (a prototype) is useful, but not required If you are able to adequately describe the idea for a publication, then you should report it to NASA
What is Reportable? 6 NASA Contractors - “Reportable item”: Any Invention or Discovery That Is or May Be Patentable “Made”, i.e. Conceived or First Reduced to Practice “In the Performance of Work”, i.e., Research Contracts Reportable Items include Software
What is Reportable? 7 NASA Employees - “Inventions”: Any Invention That Is or May Be Patentable “Made”, i.e. Conceived or First Reduced to Practice At Anytime During Your Employment
How to Report Inventions 8 Report new technologies through the NASA Electronic New Technology Reporting (eNTRe) website at: OR Fill out a New Technology Report (NTR) NASA Form 1679 Submit NTR to JSC Technology Transfer & Commercialization Office (Code AO5)
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What Happens Next? 10 Incoming Disclosures To Patent Preparation *Do not patent * May be eligible for awards Tech Brief Publication and Award Space Act Award Software Awards To Possible License
Tech Brief: Recognition Certificate Patent Application Award: $500 to $1,000 Software Release: $500 to $1,000 Inventions and Contributions Board Awards: Up to $100,000 – Space Act Award – NASA Invention of the Year – NASA Software of the Year 11 awards Benefits