Volume 9, Number 6 • November/December 2001 • Technology Transfer

NASA Spin-Off Company Enjoys Commercial Success

NASA technology developed for spacecraft and aircraft often finds applications in more terrestrial applications such as manufacturing or healthcare. It is a common outcome for the benefits of NASA’s Research and Development (R&D) to be shared widely with the American public. Recently, in an upshot twist, one of the tools NASA uses to facilitate technology transfer has found itself commercial success.

NASA TechTracS was created to help manage the technological fruits of NASA’s annual $13 billion R&D efforts. It enables the identification, capture, management, sharing and benefits of NASA’s discoveries and innovations. NASA TechTracS traces its roots to the mid-90s, when NASA redesigned its technology transfer and commercialization processes, methodologies and objectives. This thorough engineering process took several years to complete and involved the efforts of many dedicated civil servants. In 1998, several key individuals involved with implementing these new policies formed Knowledge Sharing Systems, Inc. to provide intellectual asset management products and services to R&D organizations around the world.

Knowledge Sharing Systems’ TechTracS provides intellectual asset management to universities, federal laboratories and private companies.

Knowledge Sharing Systems (KSS) developed KSS TechTracS to provide the same intellectual asset management to universities, federal laboratories and private companies. Available since March, KSS TechTracS has been wildly popular with those who have seen a product demonstration. KSS originally partnered with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University and Michigan Tech to serve as beta test sites. Today, their client list includes Carnegie Mellon University, University of Pittsburgh, University of Louisville, Cornell University and several others. The Department of Ener-gy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the National Institutes of Health have also retained KSS to build their intellectual asset management systems.

KSS TechTracS provides users with the ability to easily capture innovations at the research bench. It provides tracking tools that enable strategic decision-making about how to protect and leverage these intellectual assets. It manages invention disclosures, agreements, licenses, royalty streams and filing deadlines in a powerful relational database with enterprise-wide access.

With KSS TechTracS, R&D organizations have a suite of tools at their fingertips to ensure that innovations are managed with the same precision and strategic intent as physical assets. The system enables individually tailored access to professionals so that everyone involved with technology management can contribute their value-added expertise. Patent attorneys, licensing managers, marketing specialists and others all use the same system. For the clients who have installed it, KSS TechTracS has become an invaluable tool to ensure maximum value from their intellectual assets. For example, the Process Automation Manager™ automatically generates standard correspondence, deadline reminders and task assignments, saving hours of staff time to do the same tasks.

Presently, KSS employs 24 people and is projecting sales and employment growth over the next few years as word of its products, services and successes spreads. “The experience gained from designing NASA’s technology transfer processes and converting this knowledge into a software product has been invaluable,” says Kevin Barquinero, president and chief strategist of KSS. “What we learned at NASA applies to nearly any university or company that conducts research. We really understand the innovation process and how to maximize its capture and value in any organization.”

KSS is now developing additional features such as CRADA Manager, Edison Reporting, Advanced Financial Management, Marketing Manager and others to further improve the product. An enhanced version, KSS TechTracS 2.0, was released in October and is now being installed at several client locations. The next product upgrade is slated for release in February 2002.

KSS is yet another example of NASA’s success in sharing its expertise with the American public. Q

For additional information or a product demonstration, contact Bob Cone at 303/902-4350, bcone@knowledgesharing.com, or visit the company’s Web site at www.knowledgesharing.com. Please mention you read about it in Innovation.

NASA Official: Jonathan Root • Web Design: Printing & Design Office, NASA Headquarters • Credits