1. Kurt G. Hammerle JSC Office Of the Chief Counsel Intellectual Property Attorney 20 January 2012 1 Got Ideas?- Protecting and Reporting Inventions

2. What is Intellectual Property? 2 Patents Trademarks ® Copyrights © Trade Secrets Industrial Designs

3. 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

4. How to Protect Inventions 4 Keep It Private Restrictive Markings and Cover Sheets Passwords and Encryption for e-mail and mobile electronic storage devices Non-Disclosure Agreements outside NASA Report inventions as soon as possible, once “conception” is complete

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. How to Report Inventions 8 Report new technologies through the NASA Electronic New Technology Reporting (eNTRe) website at: http://invention.nasa.gov OR http://invention.nasa.gov Fill out a New Technology Report (NTR) NASA Form 1679 Submit NTR to JSC Technology Transfer & Commercialization Office (Code AO5)

9. Screen Shot: http://invention.nasa.gov 9

10. 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

11. 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