Laboratory patent, licensing award winners recognized

Researchers at the Laboratory who received patents or copyrights in 2001 were honored at the Laboratory’s Patent and Licensing Awards Ceremony held recently in the Otowi Building cafeteria at Technical Area 3.

Some 250 current and former Lab employees were honored at the reception for work resulting in patents, copyrights, or license royalties. In fiscal year 2001, 40 United States patents were issued for Laboratory inventions, 20 commercial licenses were approved, and $1.56 million in license income was generated. The Laboratory’s license portfolio now contains more than 600 noncommercial licenses with academia, government entities and other nonprofit organizations, and more than 150 active commercial licenses.

Tom Meyer, the Lab’s associate director for Strategic Research (AD-SR), presented the awards and spoke at the reception.

Awards were given to employees in two categories: Distinguished Patent and Distinguished Licensing.

Hans Herrman and Gary Selwyn of Plasma Physics (P-24) received the Distinguished Patent Award for their Atmospheric-Pressure Plasma Decontamination/Sterilization Chamber. Their invention is useful for decontaminating a variety of materials that have been exposed to chemical and biological warfare agents, such as anthrax, mustard blistering agent and VX nerve gas.

The Distinguished Patent Award recognizes an inventor whose patented invention exhibits outstanding innovation and whose patent exemplifies a significant technical advancement, adaptability to public use or a noteworthy value to the mission of the Laboratory.

“In view of the events of Sept. 11 through November 2001, an inexpensive and nondestructive, yet effective method for decontamination/sterilization has become essential for implementing our country’s mission [of] defending against terrorist attacks,” said Sam Freund of Los Alamos’ Intellectual Property Office, which cosponsors the awards with the Industrial Business Development (IBD) office.

Selwyn received the Distinguished Patent Award last year for his Atmospheric-pressure Plasma Jet technology, which produces a stream of reactive chemical species plasma that can clean, decontaminate, etch or coat surfaces at atmospheric pressure and low temperature.

Dipen Sinha of Electronic and Electromechanical Materials and Devices (MST-11) received this year’s Distinguished Licensing Award for his work on applications involving interferometery, a science that studies the velocity and distance of experimental wavelengths.

The Distinguished Licensing Award recognizes an innovator who has had a positive impact on the Los Alamos Licensing Program. “This individual demonstrates, by example, outstanding success in transferring Los Alamos-developed technology to the public and private sectors and is recognized for his or her role in confirming the benefits of technology commercialization activities,” said Jerome Garcia of IBD.

“Innovators and the institution share income from patents and licenses, according to University of California policy. The Licensing Program has generated more than $6 million in licensing income since the program was started in the mid 1990s,” said Garcia. Eighty-five percent of this income is redistributed to the inventors and to the technical divisions for scientific research and development, technology transfer activities and education programs at the Lab.

To read about patents awarded in 2001 and for a list of Laboratory personnel who received royalties for licensed patents and copyrights in 2001, go to http://www.lanl.gov/partnerships online.

--Michael Carlson

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