Dual-Use Technology And How To Protect It

Super Glue, Cheetos, and the Fine Art of Solving the Wrong Problem

There is a peculiar magic to government research. You begin with a sober, urgent, taxpayer-funded problem—feed the troops, protect the troops, move supplies faster, save lives—and somewhere along the way society ends up with orange fingers and the ability to reattach a coffee mug handle in 12 seconds.

Battlefield to Boardroom: How Dual-Use Technologies Unlock Markets

This is not a complaint, and it may, in fact, be one of the best arguments for public investment in research: The government often funds the boring problem, and the rest of us inherit the delightful accident. Some of the most valuable technologies don't stay in their lane, so to speak. A military research project can produce a commercial product. A consumer technology can find a defense application. And a failed experiment can become an entirely new market.

This phenomenon is often described as dual-use technology.

Key Takeaways

• Dual-use technology has both civilian and military or national-security applications.
• Dual-use technology can originate in government research, commercial R&D, or deliberately collaborative development.
• Government funding can affect intellectual property rights, including patent rights and data rights.
• Companies developing dual-use technology should consider IP ownership and commercialization strategy before entering government-funded projects.
• A strong IP strategy helps preserve both government contracting and commercial market opportunities.

What Is Dual-Use Technology?

Business owners who hear the term sometimes ask, “What is dual-use technology?” At its core, a dual-use technology is one that has both civilian and military or national-security applications. The technology may be developed originally for one market and later adapted for another, or it may be designed from the beginning to serve multiple markets.

Take Cheetos®[1] *, one of the classic dual-use technology examples of a military innovation being used commercially. No one in the Army Quartermaster Corps sat down during World War II and said, “I believe what this nation needs is a crunchy corn snack that inevitably coats all surfaces in the vicinity with cheese dust.” The actual problem was much less glamorous.

Food was heavy. Cheese, for all its patriotic virtues, contained water, spoiled easily, and did not do well being shipped halfway around the world. The military wanted rations that were lighter, smaller, and more shelf-stable. That led to research with the USDA on dehydrating cheese. USDA scientist George Sanders developed a successful cheese-powder process, and after the war, that powdered-cheese technology helped flavor Cheetos.

This is how history gets its punchlines. The government set out to solve a logistics challenge. It accidentally improved snacking.

Then there is Super Glue, another entry among famous military inventions used in civilian life, which also began with war and ended with half-used tubes in junk drawers everywhere. In 1942, Dr. Harry Coover and a team at Eastman Kodak were working with cyanoacrylates while trying to develop a clear plastic for precision gun sights. The material failed the assignment spectacularly. It wasn’t useful for gun sights because it stuck to practically everything. In a lab, this is called “a problem.” In a hardware store, this is called “an adhesive.”

The sticky discovery was shelved, but more than a decade later, Coover revisited cyanoacrylates while working on materials for jet airplane canopies and realized the very flaw that had made the substance so annoying was actually its genius. Kodak marketed it in 1958 as Eastman 910, and the world gained a tiny tube capable of bonding plastic, ceramic, wood, and occasionally two fingers.

Super Glue later made a full-circle return to the battlefield. During the Vietnam War, cyanoacrylate sprays were used by medical teams as a temporary way to stop severe bleeding. Ultimately, a failed attempt to create better gun sights for soldiers produced a tool that helped keep soldiers alive.

Dual-Use Technology Doesn't Always Start in the Military

While dual-use inventions like Super Glue follow a military-to-civilian pipeline, military and civilian technology flow in more than one direction, including that:

• Innovations can move from military to civilian sectors, as explained above.
• Commercial technology can move into military use. Today, advanced civilian tech—such as commercial drones, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, satellite technology, advanced sensors, and computer vision—is rapidly adapted for national security needs.
• Some technologies are deliberately designed for both markets. Many modern businesses intentionally build products that meet government needs while simultaneously having applications in the private sector.

The Patent Question: What Happens When a Technology Has Two Markets?

An important question for business owners and contractors is, “How does government involvement affect patent rights when a technology has dual applications?” Imagine a startup that designs an optical sensor for industrial automation. Midway through development, a defense contractor realizes the exact same sensor can be used for target identification in unmanned aerial vehicles.

Suddenly, the firm's dual-use technology IP strategy must evolve. The company must carefully consider claim scope to ensure patents cover both industrial and defense applications. They must evaluate export controls, manage confidentiality, structure licensing terms, and account for potential government rights without crippling the company’s commercial valuation or future acquisition potential.

Broadening your strategy ensures your intellectual property functions as a core business asset across every market you enter.

Frequently Asked Questions About Dual-Use Technology

What is dual-use technology?

Dual-use technology refers to equipment, software, materials, or knowledge that can be utilized for both civilian applications and military or defense purposes.

What are some examples of dual-use technology?

Common examples of dual-use technology include global positioning systems (GPS), cellular communication, drone technology, synthetic materials like cyanoacrylates (Super Glue), dehydrated food processes (Cheetos), and modern artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

Can government-funded inventions be patented?

Yes, a government-funded invention can be patented by the contractor or business that developed it. Under federal statutes such as the Bayh-Dole Act, small businesses and universities can retain title to inventions created under government-funded R&D projects.

Who owns IP developed under a government contract with government funding?

In most cases, the contractor retains primary ownership of the intellectual property developed under a government contract, while the government receives specific licensing rights depending on the funding source and contractual terms.

Can military technology be used commercially?

Yes, military technology can be commercialized, provided that the developing entity complies with relevant export control regulations, respects existing patent boundaries, and properly structures its commercial licensing agreements.

Why is intellectual property important for dual-use technology?

Intellectual property protection is crucial for dual-use technology because it secures commercial market exclusivity, protects proprietary innovations across defense and private sectors, and prevents accidental forfeiture of rights when partnering with government agencies.

How can companies protect dual-use inventions?

Companies can protect dual-use inventions by identifying pre-existing IP, defining ownership early in agreements, understanding government rights, and tailoring patent claims to cover both defense and commercial markets.

Conclusion: Seeking a Logistical Solution and Finding a Beloved Snack

The lesson in all of this is that research doesn’t always move in a straight line. We like to imagine innovation as a tidy process: Identify problem, fund solution, receive solution, cut ribbon. But the real world is messier and far more interesting. Government research often creates ingredients, tools, methods, and materials that are not fully understood at the moment of discovery. The original mission may fail with the side effect being the prize.

This matters because we tend to judge public investment too narrowly. We ask, “Did the program solve the exact thing it was designed to solve?” That is a fair question, but it is not the only one. Sometimes the answer is, “Not exactly—but it created a material, process, or body of knowledge that turned into something valuable later.”

There is a humility built into these stories. The government is not always good at predicting the consumer product of the future. No committee would have drawn a straight line from military rations to vending machines, or from transparent gun sights to emergency medicine and household repair. But that is precisely the point. Basic and mission-driven research can produce spillovers that are impossible to forecast in advance.

Cheese powder wasn’t supposed to become a cultural icon. Cyanoacrylate wasn’t supposed to become the reason every kitchen drawer contains one dried-up tube of adhesive with a cap permanently fused to the nozzle. Yet both came from the same basic pattern: a public problem, a technical challenge, an imperfect answer, and a private-sector imagination ready to turn “weird” into “useful.”

When technology crosses market boundaries, the technical breakthrough is only half the battle. The companies that recognize where their technology could go next—and protect their dual-use intellectual property accordingly—will be the ones best positioned when the next unexpected application arrives.

Sometimes when you go looking for a solution, you find Super Glue. Sometimes you find Cheetos. But with the right IP strategy in place, you secure both the breakthrough and the commercial market for whatever comes next.

Contact Martensen to discuss how to protect your dual-use technology and maximize its value.

*Cheetos is a registered trademark of Frito-Lay North America, Inc.