The Department of War (DoW) has an interesting and unusual SBIR/STTR topic as part of a recent solicitation release. They have announced a topic that is a “Patent Holiday,” where companies are invited to license government held IP with no fee.
Generally, for SBIR/STTR, the DoW identifies very specific and particular problems that they need a solution for. These problems are developed into specific SBIR/STTR topics, that small companies who can provide a technical solution to the problem apply for. Unlike other agencies, where the applications are ‘investigator initiated’ the DoW dictates the topic applications and fit and only will fund applications which address their specific identified and solicited need.
However, in the most recent (pre)release of topics, the DoW announced the T3CP Patent Holiday SBIR Open Topic Call; where they invite applicants to submit proposals related to government funded intellectual property (IP). This IP is specifically what the government holds either title or statutory rights of use to. The T3CP Patent Holiday Initiative, started in January 2026 offers no-cost commercial evaluation licenses (CELs) to qualifying industry partners, enabling small businesses to prototype, evaluate, and commercialize products built on DoW-origin patents. Essentially, they are willing to give free licenses to small businesses for the evaluation of government IP, with the hope that it will be transitioned into useful products. The Patent Holiday focuses on IP in the areas of Microelectronics, Advanced Materials, Energetics, Munitions, and Critical Minerals and supply-chain-enabling technologies. The intention is to remove the license fee barrier to these inventions and allow companies to do exploratory research, eventually translating them into products that solve the needs of the DoW and the country in general. The available IP can be found here.
Information on the SBIR/STTR open topic will provide you with Phase I funding of up to $250,000 and Phase II funding of over $2 million. The topic will be officially opened on July 22, with a deadline of August 19. Interested companies can directly reach out to the TPOC, Barry Datlof, for more information until July 22, after which enquires and answers will be publicly displayed on the DoD DSIP site. The government has done the initial research, they are willing to provide you the license to that research for free and provide you SBIR/STTR funding for you to develop the technology to a product, and (hopefully) they will be your customer where they purchase the product from you.
