NASA Offers 1,200 Patents to Startup Companies for Free

In an effort to support high-tech entrepreneurs, NASA is now offering no less than 1,200 patents to startups without any upfront licensing costs. The patents in question are divided among 15 separate categories, which include environment, manufacturing, health, medicine and biotechnology as well as optics. The main catch is that these licenses are not exclusive, even though NASA’s representatives are willing to talk about it. Then there’s the fact that these patents are only valid for startups that plan to commercialize NASA tech, and while these companies will not need to pay any licensing cost at first, they will be expected to pay royalties if they manage to sell a product successfully.

Chief technologist at NASA, David Miller, has stated the following:

“The Startup NASA initiative leverages the results of our cutting-edge research and development so entrepreneurs can take that research — and some risks — to create new products and new services.”

As you can see, the initiative’s name is “Startup NASA”, and it represents the agency’s latest effort to share its research with the world. Even if you don’t plan to license one of the patents that NASA it is offering, you should definitely have a look at the list, as it includes downloadable fact sheets as well as interesting information regarding potential applications for the technologies.

Thank you Arstechnica for providing us with this information.