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24 Op. O.L.C. 170: Application of 18 U.S.C. § 209 to Employee-Inventors Who Receive Outside Royalty Payments

September 7, 2000

A federal government employee who obtains patent rights to an invention made in the course of federal employment ordinarily does not violate 18 U.S.C. § 209 by licensing the patent rights to a private entity and receiving royalty payments in exchange, because the payments are not "compensation for [the employee's] services" in the government.

https://www.justice.gov/file/19376/download