Software Disclosure/Distribution

Laboratory employees who develop software have specific obligations and responsibilities related to the dissemination of scientific and technical software developed at LANL. The Laboratory has been effective in enhancing U.S. industrial competitiveness by making available to industry, universities, and other government organizations new and/or improved software applications by commercially licensing, or freely distributing, or developing in the open source, software developed by its code authors.

Software must be reviewed by the Classification Office (SAFE-1) and assigned a Los Alamos Computer Code (LA-CC) number before dissemination. In addition, Tech Transfer (TT) Division evaluates the software for intellectual property protection requirements. The following three documents are required for proper release of software outside LANL:

Software Release Form (LA-CC number assignment)

Copyright Disclosure Form

Software Questionnaire (doc)

All Laboratory-developed software must be deposited with the Energy Science and Technology Software Center (ESTSC) operated by DOE's Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Note: Software developed in an open source environment must have a DOE copyright assertion before a new version may be released outside the Laboratory.

RELATED LINKS

• Patent and Licensing Awards
• Patents
  LANL Only:
  - Patent Process
  - Patent Advisory Board
• Newest Issued Patents
• Copyrights
• Background Reviews
• Lab Notebooks
• Forms
• Training

DEVELOPER RESOURCES

• Software Distribution
  - Software Copyright Notices (doc)
• Software Development Copyright FAQs
• LANL Only:
  Developer Tutorial (ppt)
• ESTSC