What are the ownership rights of small businesses for Intellectual Property developed under the SBIR/STTR programs?
The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) are two programs offered by various agencies, such as the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Energy (DOE), NASA, and NIH, of the United States Government to small business to encourage the development of technology. A benefit to the small businesses of these contracts is that inventions developed under these programs can become an intellectual property asset of the small business. In other words, the small business can obtain patent protection for inventions developed under the programs and thereby exploit the commercial value of the technology. There are, however, contractual obligations that must be meant to maximize the value of the intellectual property to the small business.
