NASA Patents To Be Auctioned

Presto Vivace writes to tell us that as a continuing push to commercialize NASA-funded technology a group of 25 NASA patents will be auctioned off this coming October. "The sale, which will include rights to signal processing, GPS for spacecraft and sensor technologies, is the first auction under a partnership announced earlier this month between Goddard's Innovative Partnerships Program (IPP) and Ocean Tomo Federal Services LLC. Ocean Tomo provides a marketplace for intellectual property, which NASA wants to leverage in commercializing its technology."

Re:Great, we get to pay for them again!

[onionlee]

I think your basic assumption is incorrect. Rather than saving on R&D, the company will be forced to make a better cheaper product. If the research was made freely available, no single company has a monopoly on the technology. This of course will increase competition, in the end bringing back our well spent tax money. Imagine if mp3 players still were held under a single patent (see: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/08/1343248 [slashdot.org] ) No iPod D: and no Zune (>_> then again, that could be a good thing...)

I Smell A Rat

[mpapet]

Question: HOW does it come to pass that the contractor was awarded this?

James E. Malackowski (CEO of the auction firm) is very well connected in government. He sits on the board of the non-profit running invent.org, whose main sponsor is the USPTO.

His campaign contribution record is decidedly democratic, but the contribution to Henry Hyde's reelection campaign is interesting.

Is this the proverbial "Smoking Gun?" No. But probably a case of paying into the system to stay inside the beltway on these issues and pick up a contract along the way.

What I didn't do was see if this was your average "no-bid" private contract for cronies and whether the dollar amount would qualify the matter as a violation in the contracting process. Please contribute!

This happened before with the AIDS drug AZT....

[Anonymous Coward]

Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]
 
  The government always sells the patents for the cheap, and then the company forces us to pay crazy prices for the product. In this case, the patent started with the implementation of the drug into a treatment. It was patented for 41 years after discovery, instead of 17.
 
D:

Frozen Orange Juice Concentrate

[Moof123]

One of the big success stories from the agriculture department (I think) decades back was the development of the low temperature processing of orange juice to make concentrate. It spawned a whole industry benefitting the whole country (and world). No patents or royalties, we the people just got to enjoy orange juice year round.

I have moral problems with the government getting patents in the first place, sort of a conflict of interest there...

Should be public domain, publish it to make it public domain.

Re:Auctioned off?

[mog007]

Yeah, since when can government agencies patent anything? Anything they create is instantly entered into the public domain. Who would buy a patent that anybody's allowed to infringe upon without repercussions?