OTT OVERVIEW
The mission of the Office of Technology Transfer is to promote and facilitate the transfer of useful technologies to the commercial sector so that the public can directly benefit from the ingenuity and creativity of our outstanding researchers. The Office of Technology Transfer at JPL (OTT at JPL) specifically aims to focus on JPL intellectual property management and licensing, and commercialization support to apply JPL space technologies to non-NASA needs. The end goal is to infuse JPL-invented innovations into the private sector as quickly as possible so that taxpayers may benefit from NASA and JPL research, and so that the United States retains its technological leadership in world markets. The Office of Technology Transfer at JPL is responsible for new technology reporting, NASA Tech Briefs, software release, patents, licensing, and commercialization as these activities relate to JPL-developed technologies.
What We Do
Technology, Software, Licensing, and Commercialization
Report a New Technology
Technology transfer is an important part of NASA's mission. NASA is obligated to take an active role in transferring technology to the private sector and American governments.
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Licensing and commercialization
The primary mission of the (OTT) is to promote and facilitate the transfer of useful technologies to the commercial sector so the public can benefit from our outstanding researchers.
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Point-Wise Phase Matching for Nonlinear Frequency Generation in Dielectric Resonators
An optical resonator fabricated from a uniaxial birefringent crystal, such as beta barium borate.
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Method and Circuit for Injecting a Precise Amount of Charge Onto a Circuit Node
A method and circuit for injecting charge into a circuit node.
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Electrolytes for Wide Operating Temperature Lithium-Ion Cells
Provided herein are electrolytes for lithium-ion electrochemical cells, electrochemical cells employing the electrolytes.
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Maestro Science Activity Planner for Mars
The Maestro Science Activity Planner (Maestro) combines cutting-edge visualization with sophisticated planning and simulation capabilities to provide and intuitive interface to the Mars Exploration Rovers. It achieved simultaneous successes in missions operations and technology development.
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Open Source Software Development Paradigm
The Open Source paradigm for developing and disseminating software continues to be a growing trend in industry and increasingly, in government.
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Enhanced Quantum Efficiency Barrier Infrared Detectors
Infrared sensors are used in motion detection, night vision, and in astronomy. Photodetectors work on the principle that light can be converted into electricity.
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Fault Tolerant Computer Systems and Methods Establishing Consensus for Which Processing System Should Be the Prime String
The idea of fault tolerant computing is that a control or processing element of a spacecraft will be able to tolerate a fault, and still continue to perform its function, but in a degraded state.
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Sub-Surface Imaging of Dielectric Structures and Voids Via Narrowband Electromagnetic Resonance Scattering
This patent discloses a new subsurface imaging technique that provides information about the shape, volume, and dielectric properties of underground structures.
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Power Train for Deep Space Solar Electric Propulsion
This patent discloses an improved power system that is tailored for spacecraft operating in deep space, which is defined as farther away than the Moon.
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UTLP
The University Technology Licensing Program (UTLP) is a Limited Liability Company that Caltech and fourteen other universities participate in. UTLP also includes Harvard, Yale, Brown, Princeton, Cornell, UCLA, USC, UC Berkeley, and the University of Michigan.
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Open Source Software Development Paradigm
The Open Source paradigm for developing and disseminating software continues to be a growing trend in industry and increasingly, in government.
More about Open Source Software
Available Resources
Award Program
Excellence in aerospace software is vital to NASA’s role in developing aeronautics and space technologies and transferring them to government and industry.
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JPL Entrepreneurs
The JPL Office of Technology Transfer works closely with JPL innovators at every step of the technology transfer process, to engage the commercial sector and establish partnerships.
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Patents
A patent for an invention is an intellectual property right granted to an inventor, issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), “to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States”.
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Copyrights
Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works (including software).
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Process & Waivers
The patenting process at JPL starts with the filing of an NTR. All NTRs submitted by JPL innovators are first evaluated by the OTT technical staff (NTR Evaluators) before forwarding both the NTR and evaluation to Caltech and NASA.
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Software
Caltech owns copyrights to all JPL developed software. Although all of the software developed at JPL is protected by copyright, any software has the potential of becoming patentable.
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