Common Lisp itself was funded by the US taxpayer through DARPA, but unfortunately that doesn't necessarily make it public property.

Through funding programs like SBIR, you can get the taxpayer to fund development of your software and software patents for your private corporation, and exploit them as if you'd paid for the research out of pocket---even sell the whole company (patents and all) to offshore buyers.

For all we know, Common Lisp compilers could be vulnerable to patent holders in other countries. What would be interesting is to chart what happens to the all the public-funded technology SBIR has cranked out in its several decades, and see how much of it goes overseas.

It would also be interesting to know if the public funded various parts of CL implementations (especially in university environments), and under what terms.

(A note: I do not yet know if any of the funding for Common Lisp specifically came through SBIR, nor whether the Bayh-Dole act applies to it. But I'm considering a research article on the subject.)

A few relevant links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayh%E2%80%93Dole_Act

http://www.economist.com/node/5327661?story_id=5327661&no_na_tran=1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Business_Innovation_Research