scope:

Purpose

When NASA receives royalties or other payments as a result of the licensing or assignment of inventions, NASA will distribute such royalties and other payments in accordance with law. This NPR establishes the responsibilities and procedures for such distributions.

Applicability

a. This NPR is applicable to NASA Headquarters and NASA Centers, including Component Facilities and Technical and Service Support Centers, all of which are considered to be a laboratory or laboratories as defined in Distribution of Royalties Received by Federal Agencies, 15 U.S.C. § 3710a(d)(2) .

b. This NPR applies to royalties or other payments received by NASA from the licensing or assignment of an invention owned in whole or in part by NASA. Such invention may be made by:

(1) a NASA employee,

(2) an employee of another U.S. Government agency when such invention is assigned to NASA,

(3) an individual directly assigning his or her interest in the invention to the U.S. Government, and

(4) an employee of a NASA contractor or grantee where the title to such invention has been assigned to the contractor or grantee from the employee and subsequently to NASA by the contractor or grantee or has vested in NASA by operation of law.

c. This NPR also applies to royalties or other payments received by NASA from the licensing or assignment of an invention made by an employee, contractor, or grantee of another U.S. Government agency and of which NASA has custody and administration, pursuant to Patent Rights in Inventions Made with Federal Assistance, 35 U.S.C. 207, unless otherwise agreed between NASA and the transferring agency.

d. The term "royalties and other payments" means any money, including running royalties, alternate or periodic minimum royalties, and licensing or assignment fees, other than payments of patent costs and costs for maintaining a patent, received by NASA for granting a license or assignment in an invention.

e. In this directive, all mandatory actions (i.e., requirements) are denoted by statements containing the term "shall." The terms "may" or "can" denote discretionary privilege or permission, "should" denotes a good practice and is recommended but not required, "will" denotes expected outcome, and "are/is" denotes description material.

f. In this directive all document citations are assumed to be the latest version unless otherwise noted.