The Army Research Laboratory (ARL) www.arl.army.mil is launching an online store to increase public access to ARL intellectual property such as the patents needed to convert research into jobs and to provide information on innovations to help service members.
The ARL IP store http://license-techlinkcenter.org/?q=arl is a website that allows users to browse technologies, select a specific opportunity, download the patent and published papers, apply for a license and ultimately receive a license to make, use, and sell the technology. Now this can all be done online.
The online store will open with 20 technologies in the inventory which is a fraction of ARL’s 300 active patents and will include many more in the future. “We had a problem with some of our patents sun-setting before the market was ready for them and before we could adequately market them”, said Thomas Mulkern, Chief of the ARL Technology Transfer and Outreach Office.
Mulkern adds, “We’re hoping that by placing more of ARL’s patented technologies into an online store format that we will increase exposure to these opportunities and lower transaction costs to licensing. This is part of our initiative to lower barriers with small businesses.”
Developing the store was a team effort using two of ARL’s existing partners in the technology transfer that included Techlink http://techlinkcenter.org and Leidos Corp. The team has been working since January 2016 to identify patents that would be good candidates for the store. At that point, the team selected half of the patented technologies, conducted detailed inventory interviews, and looked into information to use for marketing.
ARL Patent Attorney Guy Miller notes, “Licensing has traditionally been the domain of attorneys, but the process has become more inclusive in the past 30 years. While certain processes, such as marketing, technology descriptions, and license applications are online, the legal review and financial transactions are not going to be online.”