Federal laboratories share initial information with you through workshops, briefings, and visits. Often, the sharing is a precursor to longer-term interactions between a company and a federal R&D center. Disseminating information has always been a responsibility of federal laboratories; now there is an emphasis on technology use as potential business opportunities for U.S. companies.

For special situations, the parties sharing information use non-disclosure agreements prior to receiving or giving out proprietary information.

Much information is available about federal laboratory R&D through publications at scientific and technical meetings and in technical presentations. This information along with other resources such as licensable technologies, software and research-in-progress are accessible through commercial and government databases and specialized technical information centers.

Legislation and policy changes have made personnel exchanges easier. Industrial staff are assigned to government laboratories; in some cases, reverse assignments also take place. The employer pays its own staff salary costs; the host organization provides services and supplies. Both organizations benefit by learning from each other. Personnel exchanges are excellent first steps toward long-term alliances between federal R&D facilities and U.S. industry.

Unique government expertise is available to provide technical assistance to industry. Small businesses especially benefit from technical assistance and suggestions from laboratory staff. Depending on the circumstances, there may be no charge for technical assistance. Another way to discuss technical problems is by visiting federal laboratories. Technical assistance may open the door to a later technology transfer.

Specialized facilities provide unique capabilities not otherwise available in the private sector. Industry access to such facilities is often on a cost-reimbursable basis, and the information acquired generally belongs to the company. Under circumstances when the information is also of interest to the government or scientific community at large, industry may be able to negotiate different terms under cooperative research and development or other agreements. Some facilities are dedicated to providing equipment, expertise, information and other types of assistance to outside organizations.

Some federal laboratories have provisions for undertaking sponsored research where industry reimburses the laboratory for work done at the facility. In such instances, the work carried out must require unique capabilities not available in the private sector.

Licensing patents and patent applications and transferring technical know-how have made technology transfer more productive and helped staff at federal laboratories to recognize and support their inventions. In fact, exclusive licensing need not inhibit the broad application of the technology. In many cases, it can be applied in different industrial sectors and markets, offering an opportunity for non-competitors to collaborate and obtain exclusive use of a federal technology for their specific markets.

Although federal and non-federal employees at a federal laboratory may protect software-related inventions by patent, U.S. law generally prohibits federal employees from copyrighting software. However, there are instances when companies have entered into Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) with federal software developers and have made such significant contributions or changes to the software, that the company has been able to copyright the product resulting from the CRADA effort.

There are many ways the public and private sectors perform cooperative R&D with the federal laboratories. These include memoranda of understanding and other cooperative arrangements. Special authorities have been granted to the Army Corps of Engineers and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

In 1986 and 1989, legislation was enacted as part of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act to enable federal laboratories to enter into cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs, also known as CRADAs) with private businesses and other entities. Since then, more than 1000 CRADAs have been signed based on this authority. CRADAs provide the means to leverage R&D efforts and to create teams for solving technological and industrial problems. Through CRADAs, companies or groups of companies can work with one or more federal laboratories to pool resources and share risks in developing technologies. The CRADA is a useful R&D relationship when the transfer of technology and subsequent transfer of rights are expected to be important to the collaborating party.

CRADAs are potentially very flexible. There are many benefits. The law sets the following conditions for a CRADA:

1. Collaboration involves the expenditure of federal funds and the use of federal personnel, services, facilities, equipment, intellectual property or other resources. However, no federal funds may flow to the CRADA partner.

2. Non-federal contributions include funds, personnel, services, facilities, equipment, intellectual property or other resources.

3. Special consideration is given to small businesses and consortia involving small businesses.

4. Preference is given to businesses that are located in the United States and undertake to manufacture substantially in the United States products that embody inventions developed under the CRADA or are produced using inventions developed under the CRADA.

5. The United States Government always retains a nonexclusive or nontransferable, irrevocable, and paid-up license to practice any inventions developed under a CRADA for governmental purposes.

6. The federal laboratory may in advance grant or agree to grant to a collaborating party exclusive patent licenses or assignments for all laboratory employee inventions made under the CRADA.

7. Federal laboratories may protect from public access commercially valuable information produced under CRADAs by both federal and non-federal participants for up to five years as negotiated for each CRADA; trade secrets or commercially valuable information that is privileged or confidential information which is obtained in the conduct of research or as a result of activities under a CRADA from a non-federal participant will not be disclosed.

As more experience is gained with CRADAs and Space Act Agreements, federal departments and agencies are developing general policy guidelines. For instance, IR&D funds may be used as a CRADA contribution in the case of DOD and NASA contractors, providing the costs would have been allowable as IR&D had there been no CRADA.

Federal laboratories and U.S. industry work together within consortia. Some special centers draw collectively upon the expertise of laboratories, universities and industry to focus on broad technologies that can be pursued cooperatively until specific market opportunities arise. Becoming more common are horizontal consortia, known as "pre-competitive R&D consortia" where industrial competitors may pool their resources in research and development which is pre-competitive. Industrial participants may protect themselves from possible treble damages imposed under anti-trust laws by filing with the Department of Justice under The National Cooperative Research Act of 1984. Vertical consortia are becoming more common with a company and its vendor collaborating with a federal laboratory in order to incorporate new technology in the vendor's product.

Government contractors and contractors to government-owned, contractor operated laboratories already have the commercial rights to patented inventions made under their contracts. This is a large resource for potential commercial development.