14 CFR § 1245.102 - Definitions and terms.
As used in this subpart:
(a) Contract means any actual or proposed contract, agreement, understanding, or other arrangement with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) or another Government agency on NASA's behalf, including any assignment, substitution of parties, or subcontract executed or entered into thereunder, and including NASA grants awarded under the authority of 42 U.S.C. 1891–1893.
(b) Contractor means the party who has undertaken to perform work under a contract or subcontract.
(c) Invention means any, new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, or any variety of plant, which is or may be patentable under the Patent Laws of the United States of America or any foreign country.
(d) Class of inventions means inventions directed to a particular process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or to a narrowly drawn, focused area of technology.
(e) Made, when used in relation to any invention, means the conception or first actual reduction to practice of such invention.
(f) Practical application means to manufacture in the case of a composition or product, to practice in the case of a process or method, or to operate in the case of a machine or system; and, in each case, under such conditions as to establish that the invention is being utilized and that its benefits are to the extent permitted by law or Government regulations available to the public on reasonable terms.
(g) Board means the NASA Inventions and Contributions Board established by the Administrator of NASA within the Administration under section 305(f) of the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, as amended (42 U.S.C. 2457(f)).
(h) Chairperson means Chairperson of the NASA Inventions and Contributions Board.
(i) Petitioner means a contractor or prospective contractor who requests that the Administrator waive rights in an invention or class of inventions made or which may be made under a NASA contract. In the case of an identified invention, the petitioner may be the inventor(s).
(j) Government agency includes any executive department, independent commission, board, office, agency, administration, authority, Government corporation, or other Government establishment of the executive branch of the Government of the United States of America.
(k) Administrator means the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or the Administrator's duly authorized representative.