Evolving trends in software, and intellectual property subject of IPAC workshop

A software workshop sponsored by the Laboratory’s Industrial Partnerships and Commercialization (IPAC) Office drew nearly 100 attendees last week.

Participants in the event, held on on May 22 and 23, included software developers, their managers, procurement officers, attorneys, DOE/NNSA representatives and technology transfer professionals who came to hear about rapidly evolving trends in intellectual property and business models for software.

The speakers, both the keynoters and those on panels, discussed many different aspects of software and the varied ways in which it is valued and licensed after it has been written.

Jan Tulk, associate director of the Administration Directorate and Laboratory Counsel, introduced the workshop and provided an overview on the Laboratory for the conference’s outside guests.

"Workshops of this type serve a valuable function," Tulk said. "Last week’s workshop was part of a multi-pronged effort to raise the level of our attention to intellectual property for software to one that is appropriate for the excellence of our technical program."

One of the keynote speakers was James Taylor, who shared his views of the future. Taylor, an author, consultant and adviser to some of America’s leading companies, drew on his experience as a marketer and innovator to cover many different aspects of the future.

Associate Director for Computation Dona Crawford noted that, "At the workshop, we were able to explore a wide spectrum of intellectual property interests related to software. Their interests varied depending on whether they came from the code developers who generate software, managers who have both programmatic and long-term research responsibilities, or our legal and business experts and procurement specialists who work with it on a daily basis."

Karena McKinley, director of the IPAC office, moderated an industrial panel composed of company representatives from IBM and Hewlett-Packard, and a venture capitalist from Taproot Ventures. Their discussions centered on how their companies viewed software as an asset and treated it.  Other panels discussed intellectual property issues, open source software licensing, university experience with software licensing, and various laboratory technology transfer professionals’ experiences with software licensing.
According to McKinley, this workshop was one of several initiatives to raise the Laboratory’s understanding of intellectual property and business issues related to software to a level that is appropriate for Livermore’s world-class technical work.