Lab posts record year for incomefrom royalties, eclipsing $9 million

LIVERMORE — In its best year ever for securing royalty income from technology licenses, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory garnered more than $9 million in the recently completed 2008 fiscal year.

The $9.4 million total represents one of the highest amounts of royalty income achieved in a fiscal year by a Department of Energy national laboratory.

"Clearly, our royalty income this year is the best we’ve ever done by nearly 50 percent, and it is a tribute to the quality of the intellectual property that is coming out of the Laboratory," said Erik Stenehjem, the director of LLNL’s Industrial Partnerships Office.

"The products that are being developed from LLNL technology are helping in both combating disease and protecting national security. All of this success is directly attributable to the creativity of our employees."

The top four LLNL technologies for producing royalty income are:

• The whole chromosome paints, a cancer and disease diagnostic advance licensed to Abbott Laboratories of Abbott Park, Ill.;


• A laser peening technology for strengthening jet engine fan blades and discs as well as other metal components, licensed to Metal Improvement Co. Inc., of Paramus, N.J.;


• A rapid polymerase chain reaction microchip technology that heats and cools DNA, licensed to Sunnyvale-based Cepheid;


• A micropower impulse radar technology that is small, inexpensive and accurate and has been licensed to 12 companies for fluid-level sensing; other residential, commercial, industrial automation; transportation; medical applications; and security uses.

At nominal royalty rates, this past year’s $9.4 million of royalty income represents annual sales of approximately $250 million in products based upon on LLNL technology, according to Stenehjem.

For the past fiscal year, the Lab’s Industrial Partnerships Office concluded 19 technology licenses. Its royalty income and licenses for the previous three fiscal years have been $6.3 million and 20 licenses in 2007, $6.1 million and 18 licenses in 2006, and $5.6 million and 16 licenses in 2005.

"The efforts of the Laboratory’s scientists, engineers, technicians and the Industrial Partnerships Office not only benefit the U.S. economy, but also make important contributions to homeland security," Stenehjem noted.

Currently, there are more than 20 companies that are manufacturing homeland security products based on LLNL technology that go into the hands of end users to protect the nation, he said.