Patents resulting from NSF's engineering program

This report presents the results of a study of engineering research project grants funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) between 1968 and 1977. The purpose was to determine the extent to which the grants led to patented technology and to estimate the economic value of those patents. From the names of the principal investigators supported by NSF Engineering grants, who are also named as inventors on engineering patents registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, an examination was made by technology experts from SRI International, Inc. to determine the relevance of each grant to its associated patent. An independent assessment was also made to evaluate the commercial potential of each patent and to estimate its economic value. The study found that from some 4077 NSF Engineering project grants awarded between 1968 and 1977, about 2.6 grantees in 100 produced patents linked to his or her grant. Some 248 patents were examined in this study. Although few patents produced any economic value, seven of these patents were licensed, with royalties ranging from $10 000 to $250 000 annually. The total long-term royalties expected from the linked patents investigated is estimated as high as $52.5 million. The aggregate value to the U.S. economy from the sales of products derived from those patents could range between ten and twenty times that amount, depending upon the industry. One observation from the study is that a strong patent licensing program is becoming valuable to universities, not just for producing royalty income, but for the additional sponsored research funds it attracts from industrial firms.