The Office of the Assistant General Counsel for Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property is responsible for providing legal counsel to Departmental elements on all matters relating to intellectual property (including patents, trademarks, copyrights, and technical data) and transfer of those rights from Department laboratories to the private sector in accordance with established legal authorities. The Office is also responsible for investigating and disposing of copyright and patent infringement actions against the Department. Additional information on intellectual property is available here.
Among its duties, the Office obtains, administers, and licenses intellectual property (inventions) owned by the Government that arise from Department sponsored research and development. Inventions made at most DOE laboratories are owned by the contractor operating the laboratory and are licensed by the contractor directly to the private sector. Transfer of this technology to the private sector is done through a variety of legal instruments, from technical assistance agreements to solve a specific problem, user agreements, licensing of patents and software, exchange of personnel, work for others agreements and cooperative research and development agreements. Additional information on technology transfer is available here.
This site includes information pertaining to disposition of intellectual property rights that arise under direct research and development transactions between the Department and the private sector, including through patent waivers, government owned inventions available for license, laboratory partnering transactions between Department laboratories and the private sector such as cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs), work for others (WFOs) agreements, and facility user agreements, as well as information for Department employees and Program Offices on the use of copyrighted materials, obtaining trademarks, and reporting inventions made by government employees.
For general information about copyrights, go to www.copyright.gov. For information on patents and trademarks, go to www.uspto.gov.
