IP & Licensing

Licensing Opportunities

Your Partner for Technology and Innovation

Los Alamos National Laboratory licenses its inventions, technologies, software and research tools to companies that can turn them into products and services that benefit society.

Our licensing program helps businesses:

• Enhance existing products with new features or materials.
• Develop new standalone technologies for commercial use.
• Launch startups that bring Laboratory research to market.

Patented inventions and copyrighted software are available to both existing and startup companies through exclusive or non-exclusive licenses.

Access our available technologies here to gain insights into the potential transformative tools and solutions we provide. An additional suite of software to address physical processes can be accessed through Scientific Software.

Licensing Options

Licenses can be tailored to fit different business needs:

• Commercial use: Incorporate LANL technologies into market-ready products.
• Internal business use: Apply technology within your organization to improve processes or capabilities.
• Test and evaluation: Assess whether a technology fits your needs before licensing.
• Government contract work: Access technologies to support federally funded projects.

Intellectual property rights may be granted for commercial or internal business use; to determine the IP’s suitability with a test and evaluation agreement, or accessed for work performed under a government contract.

Example licenses include: 

Commercial Patent License Agreement: A grant of rights to make and use Los Alamos inventions claimed in a patent or patent application for a commercial application. 

Commercial Copyright License Agreement: A grant of rights to use or distribute Los Alamos copyrights and/or software for a commercial application.

Test & Evaluation Agreement: A limited grant of rights to Los Alamos IP for a short-term test and evaluation period.

Software and License Agreement: Provides rights to Los Alamos copyrights/software for internal research and use purposes.

Government Use: Transfers rights to Los Alamos IP to U.S. Federal agencies and U.S. Federal Government contractors.

Licensing Practices

We structure each license to encourage success while protecting public investment.

Financial Terms

• May include an initial license fee, annual fee, and/or royalties.
• Designed to be fair and to support the licensee’s ability to commercialize successfully.

Performance Expectations

• Licensees are expected to follow an agreed commercialization plan.
• Exclusive licenses typically include progress milestones to ensure active development.

Types of Licenses

• Non-exclusive: Common for most technologies, allowing multiple users.
• Exclusive: Considered when justified by business need or market potential; includes stricter performance and financial terms.

Other Key Points

• Licensed products must be substantially manufactured in the United States to support domestic economic growth.
• The U.S. government retains rights to use and further develop all licensed technologies for government purposes.

Get Started

If your organization is interested in licensing Los Alamos technologies or software, contact our team to discuss available opportunities and the best fit for your goals.

Email licensing@lanl.gov for inventions and agreements

Email fci-ip@lanl.gov for software-related questions