NSA employees get first-ever royalty checks

The National Security Agency will award royalty checks for the first time Wednesday to two agency workers who developed a software code used in a commercial product.

This is the first time NSA has developed a technology that ended up being sold to a private firm as part of a commercial product, agency officials said.

NSA sold the software code to Raytheon Co. to help it create a real-time network monitoring and auditing software program known as Silent Runner. Raytheon has sold Silent Runner to the Defense Department as well as to commercial companies.

The software program was sold under the Domestic Technology Transfer Program, created by the 1986 Technology Transfer Act. Under the act, federal agencies must share some of their research and development information with private companies in the United States. In return, agencies can receive up to 20 percent of the revenue from the sale and licensing of the technology and the agency employees who invented the technology can receive as much as $150,000 annually in royalty payments.

Over the past five years, NSA has earned $250,000 in licensing agreements. The sale of Silent Runner will earn the agency $6,500 in royalties. The employees who developed it will each receive 20 percent of those royalties, or $1,250. The agency will keep the rest of the money. The employees will get additional royalty checks if Silent Runner continues to sell well.

NSA expects to continue sharing technology with commercial companies. "In the future, the technical health of U.S. industry will even be more important to the success of the National Security Agency. For that reason, efforts will continue toward technology transfers," NSA officials said in a press release.