Managing IP for NSF
Oregon State University (OSU) has strength in the area of Intellectual Property (IP) protection and commercialization through coordination with industrial partners and has a well-established office for commercialization and corporate development, OSU Advantage. An IP agreement will be established that allows for collaboration with industrial partners throughout the research and commercialization process. Specifically, confidentiality agreements will be entered into before any detailed discussion and collaboration takes place, OSU Advantage will take the lead in managing OSU solely-owned IP, will coordinate with partners to manage jointly-owned IP, and, if applicable, will enter into good faith negotiations with industrial partners to commercialize the results of collaborative research projects. All IP created using NSF funding will be governed by Title 35 of the USC http://uscode.house.gov/download/title_35.shtml and specifically Chapter 18 (http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/35C18.txt) and subject to the Patent and Copyrightable Materials provisions in section 730 of the NSF Grant Policy Manual (http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/manuals/gpm05_131/gpm7.jsp#730).
Ownership of IP:
The inventorship and ownership of intellectual property (IP) generated from this project will be determined according to United States patent law and more specifically as follows.
- OSU shall own all rights and title to IP created solely by OSU employees (OSU IP).
- Collaborating industrial partners shall own all rights and title to IP created solely by the entities employees.
- OSU and collaborating industrial partners shall jointly own all rights and title to co-created IP by OSU and industrial partner employees pursuant to this project (Joint IP).
Administrative Capabilities:
OSU will take the lead in managing OSU IP that results from this proposal. OSU Advantage follows the intellectual property policies of the federal government and the policies of the Oregon State University System. Links to these policies can be located here -http://oregonstate.edu/research/occd/sites/default/files/ousintellprop…. OSU Advantage is responsible for the protection, government reporting, and licensing of all IP that is generated at the university. This office has nine full time employees and sufficient resources to pay for patent expenses. Additional information about this office can be found here: https://advantage.oregonstate.edu/ip-licensing
OSU and collaborating industrial partners agree to enter into good faith negotiations to manage any Joint IP created under the award.
Future Cooperative Research
The Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) at OSU facilitates industrial cooperative research. OSU and collaborating industrial partners may wish to enter into discussions to develop and strengthen future collaborations. The management and ownership of future intellectual property from this collaboration will flow in a similar fashion as detailed above.