How will intellectual property be handled?
This Network is structured so that the U01 PI can gain assignment of intellectual property rights (and thereby control the patent prosecution) for drug candidates developed through the Blueprint Network. To this end, the NIH is obtaining a Declaration of Exceptional Circumstances (DEC) to the Federal Acquisition Regulations to ensure that the medicinal chemistry contractor will offer the U01 PI assignment of rights to patent prosecution filings for all compounds generated through the chemistry contract that are directly related to the U01 PI’s starting materials. Inventorship will be governed by U.S. law, so that contractor chemists who work under the DEC will be listed on patents. However, the contractor chemists must abide by the royalty-distributing policies of the U01 PI’s institution. The medicinal chemistry contractors will retain ownership of inventions on methods of manufacturing or synthesis but must provide broad licenses to the U01 PI to enable subsequent development of drug
