Who doesn’t like free stuff? The Pentagon is declaring a two-year royalty-free holiday on 400 patents developed by its 216 laboratories. Basically, the military has more patents than it knows what to do with so it’s giving companies and entrepreneurs a chance to do something with them.
“We want to provide the innovators in industry a clear path to move technology from the lab into the hands of the American warfighter and the American consumer,” says Emil Michael, the undersecretary of war for research and engineering.” This patent holiday is the start of a new era of collaboration.”
Anyone who wants to fiddle with one of the 400 technologies initially available can obtain a commercial evaluation license (CEL) for free. If all goes well, then it’s time to make a deal, says Michael in Trumpian fashion. Michael says steps are underway to develop a searchable database using AI. The list of 400 patents is available through a partnership with TechLink and an interagency database called iEdison.
The free patents are divided by major and minor categories. The major sectors include energetics, materials, microelectronics, and munitions. A “priority tech” section includes patents relating to autonomous drones for land, sea, and air as well as rare earth development and counter-measures for GPS jamming. Patents developed by the MIT Lincoln Laboratory and the MITRE National Security Engineering Center also are available.
Be advised that the Pentagon views the world through a gunsight so potential consumer applications may be found in unexpected places with dry pitch lines. For example, the munitions section contains a patent that would improve the dynamic range of high-speed digital cameras, a categorization that may seem puzzling to civilians until it becomes apparent that the initial purpose was to improve the video recording of explosions like that of a railgun or flashbang grenade. See: “High speed, high dynamic range video system senses accurate tonal distinction.”
Some other patents that may excite a Digital CxO reader include:
–a biometric security authentication technology that uses human veins as a personal identifier. A vein-image camera secured in a smartwatch takes images that are converted into a hash code by a scale invariance feature algorithm;
–robust thermal sensors for use in harsh environments and compatible with semiconductor manufacturing:
–a drone detection system that uses the drone’s own frequency transmissions as an identifier.
The amount of money the Pentagon makes from licensing deals is relatively small compared to the $3.3 billion budget the Pentagon spends on research but that’s because no one knows about them, says Michael. The patent holiday is a pilot program that may change that. Think of it as a free sample at a supermarket.
