Nasa to hold auction for software patents
Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center will hold an auction on 11 November for five patents focused on automated software development.
The patents — 7,668,796, 7,627,538, 7,752,608, 7,739,671 and 7,543,274 — cover a new method for automatically creating software code for natural language, graphics and other formats with a semantic structure. The expected value of the lot is over $250,000 (£158,000).
This technology could give developers a guarantee that what they build meets user requirements. It could be used to cut software-development time and coding errors. Nasa developed the technology for creating code for spacecraft, but its possible applications include sensor networks, robotics and smart grids.
For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see NASA to hold auction for automated software development patents on ZDNet.com.