How do sponsored research agreements affect intellectual property rights?
Sponsorship of research in the System almost always comes with some “strings attached” to any intellectual property that may result. Exceptions are gifts and unrestricted grants. Inventors should be aware of the intellectual property clauses of their research contracts and of the sources of their funding that produced the invention. Any research contract between the System and a corporate sponsor has an intellectual property clause that stipulates the rights, if any, the sponsor will have in any resulting inventions. The rights licensed to a sponsor can range from none to rights so significant that it essentially precludes commercial use by anyone besides the sponsor. Inventors should consult with OTTIP staff as well as the staff of the Office of Research Services to assess these situations on a case-by-case basis. In the past, rights to some System inventions have been given, inadvertently, to several entities due to mixed funding of projects and overlapping intellectual property righ
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