Research output: Results, publishing and intellectual property
Intellectual Property (IP) is the outcome of research and includes: know-how, methodology and new ideas or inventions. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are IP with legal rights that make it both protectable and tradeable. The key areas of IPR are confidential information, patents and copyright. IPR is increasingly important in academic and research life; sponsors will generally want privileged access to IPR in exchange for funding the research.
The key points to remember when thinking about IPR are:
- Someone somewhere owns the IP arising from every pound spent on research; it is important to ensure that you establish who owns your results. As a condition of your employment, any IP produced from your work is owned by the University, which may decide, in consultation with you, to allow access to that IP by the sponsor of your research.
- Ownership involves considering inventorship/authorship and assessing IP clauses within employment, research contracts and possible funding body guidelines.
- To avoid potential problems regarding proof and date of invention it is important to keep a written record of the progress of your research in a laboratory notebook.
- Ownership brings control and responsibilities. Be wary of sponsors who expect the University of Bristol to bear the costs of protecting IP whilst they have free access to the inventions.
- Ownership is one thing, but the right to use is another. The most fundamental right for a research academic is the right to publish. Additionally, you may want to use the results in future projects or to develop IP commercially.
- Licenses require careful negotiation: user rights can be exclusive or non-exclusive; free or for-money; controlled by field of application and by territory; on-going or fixed term; dependent on satisfactory use and performance; generated up-front or only upon exercising a granted option.
- Ensure that any contract distinguishes between IP arising before research starts (background), and that created by the project (foreground). That created simultaneously on other projects is usually classified as background IP. There may be a different 'IP deal' for each.
- If IP is generated which is of potential commercial value, contact RED to discuss possible commercialisation routes. Sometimes a research funder will wish to have access to relevant background IP that is useful in enabling them to exploit foreground IP. This can be a lucrative arrangement for us.
- Any income generated from the University's IP is distributed according to the University scheme.
For further information, please contact the Contracts Team and/or visit RED's Intellectual Property web pages.