ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Two hundred sixty-one Sandia National Laboratories inventors and authors earned almost $660,000 in royalty award distributions during FY03, ending September 30, 2003. The award average was $795, and the highest award was $84,124.
In addition, more than $2.1 million in royalty revenue was awarded to Sandia line organizations. The royalty revenue was generated from 159 commercial- and fee-bearing licenses.
Sandia’s Royalty Sharing Program provides inventors, authors, contributors, and technical organizations throughout the Labs the opportunity to receive royalties from technology licensing. Sandia has distributed nearly $3.2 million in royalty incentives to qualifying employees since the program’s inception in 1992.
Technologies receiving royalty awards were wide-ranging, including intelligent software programs that provide reasoning capabilities, a software tool to aid in the incorporation of complex gas phase chemical reaction mechanisms into numerical simulations, a laboratory chemical detection technique for identifying traces of gunpowder residue left whenever someone fires a gun, development of a valve for fluid control, a passive injection control for microfluidic systems, polymer formulations for gettering hydrogen, and a method to eliminate gas blocking in electrokinetic pumping systems.
Sandia established the Royalty Sharing Program to encourage staff and management to identify, protect, and deploy the Labs’ intellectual property assets. Intellectual property includes patents, copyrighted software, and trademarks. Royalty income is generated through commercial licenses that are negotiated by Sandia’s Intellectual Property Management Team.
Of the licensing revenue, 20 percent is distributed to inventors and authors of the licensed intellectual property; 10 percent goes to employees who qualify for awards as classified inventors or significant contributors, and to employees identified as inventors on patent filing applications; 65 percent is distributed to technical organizations within Sandia for discretionary research and development and technology maturation; and 5 percent is used for intellectual property management.
Sandia’s Corporate Business Development and Partnerships Center recently hosted an annual ceremony to honor inventors and authors who received royalty awards in FY03.