The Department of Defense’s (DOD) no-fee patent licensing pilot program has issued 14 commercial evaluation licenses covering patented technologies developed in DOD laboratories, with another 36 license applications pending and 145 more in progress, according to a senior defense official.
Under the Trump administration, the DOD was rebranded as the Department of War.
The pilot program provides no-fee commercial evaluation licenses for a curated selection of 500 patents from DOD laboratories. The effort is intended to accelerate the commercialization of technologies developed through the department’s research enterprise and increase the return on the Pentagon’s $3.5 billion annual research investment.
Joseph Jewell, assistant secretary of defense for science and technology, provided the update during the Defense One Tech Summit on June 16 in Arlington, Va., saying the department is beginning to see results from the initiative launched earlier this year.
“We’ve actually, I’m proud to say, we’ve had a total of 14 patents signed out legally for commercial evaluation,” Jewell said.
A commercial evaluation license allows companies to assess the technical, market, and business potential of a patented technology, along with any scale-up challenges. The program provides a two-year period of access to no-fee licenses, allowing companies to evaluate technologies before making a longer-term commitment.
Jewell said one company that initially entered the program under a nonexclusive evaluation license later opted to pursue a paid licensing agreement instead.
“The company decided they liked it enough that they didn’t want the non-exclusivity,” Jewell said. “They actually decided we’re going to pony up and actually pay for this one, so we’ll count that as a success too.”
Among the technologies drawing commercial interest is the Battlefield Assisted Trauma Distributed Observation Kit (BATDOK), a mobile medical documentation and patient-monitoring software developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory.
Jewell said several companies are working to transition BATDOK into commercial use, including Philips Healthcare, BAE Systems, and Zoll Medical.
“We’re starting to see, since May, these things come on board,” he said. “The point is really to get the technology out there.”
The growing interest in the pilot program has led to a six-month extension, Jewell said.