Advantage Impact

Industry Sponsored Research

[email protected]

Standard Contracting Model

Increasing our outreach to industry is a top priority of Oregon State University (OSU).  Among other engagement goals, OSU is actively seeking industry partners to sponsor research.  In offering research sponsorships opportunities to industry partners OSU provides:

• World-class faculty with diverse experience in basic and applied research.
• Students ready to use what they’ve learned in real-world application and become a pool of experienced, skilled, career-ready graduates.
• State-of-the-art laboratories and specialized equipment for research, development and testing.
• Very low-cost labor rates and minimal overhead.

Working with Oregon State University 

As a public research institution, OSU is able to leverage its favorable tax status and reputation to generate, low-cost, world class research.  But to maintain its public research institution status and integrity, OSU must be permitted to:

• Publish its research results without restriction,
• Retain ownership of all intellectual property created by OSU employees, and
• Operate within certain other, well-defined rules established for public research institutions by the State of Oregon and the Federal Government.  

The above said, OSU can generally offer to industry sponsors to:

• Protect their confidential information from unauthorized disclosure or use.
• Permit a review process prior to publication
• Provide a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to intellectual property generated from the research results.
• Present an option to negotiate a royalty-bearing exclusive-license to intellectual property generated from the research project.
• Prepare a schedule with milestones and fixed priced invoicing.

Alternative IP Contracting Model

To further expand our outreach to industry and increase opportunities in applied research to faculty and students, OSU has developed an alternative contracting model that can be offered under certain circumstances. 

This model permits the sponsor to obtain a prepaid option to exclusively license with an agreed field of use, any patentable inventions resulting from the sponsored research. 

OSU can offer this prepaid exclusive patent option when:

• The building where the sponsored research will be conducted has capacity available to permit use for the private benefit of the sponsor.  Many of the buildings on campus with laboratory space were built with tax-free bonds that restrict private benefit usage, and     
• The principal investigator and his/her direct superior agree to accept the possible limitations on future research that may result from an exclusive license and related terms and conditions.

The cost of the prepaid option to the sponsor is:

• An upfront, nonrefundable fee equivalent to 25% of the total cost (direct cots + indirect costs) or fixed price of sponsored (contracted) research (minimum fee is $18,750, which is  25% of $75K), and
• Reimburse OSU for all incurred patent expenses including patent application filing fees and out-pocket legal expenses.

In addition, when feasible and reasonably needed, OSU can and will:

• Negotiate based on contract proposal of our sponsor.  We also have our own templates but don’t force our sponsors to start negotiations using it.
• Accept unique compliance requirements and develop process plans for them.  Note, the more lead-time our faculty and cognizant contract offices have to plan and prepare for such requirements, the more likely we can accept.  
• Permit sponsors to draft patent applications for patentable results. If OSU is the sole employer of all the inventors, OSU will need to confirm and accept the contents of the patent application.
• Assign patent ownership rights to sponsors when all claims and the specification of the patent application completely conform to the agreed field of use. 

Frequently asked questions about industry-sponsored research at Oregon State 

Can our company review publications resulting from the research?

Certainly!  OSU actively encourages sponsors to review manuscripts before they are publicly disclosed to identify any information confidential or proprietary to the company, or any inventions that should be filed for protect before research results are published.  Our faculty members work constructively with each of our sponsors to ensure that patents are filed and proprietary information of the sponsor will not be unintentionally disclosed. 

Can our company use the results of sponsored research?

Yes of course!  Sponsors can receive a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to commercially use any inventions conceived or copyrightable items created by OSU during the sponsored research project.

Can our company exclusively license the intellectual property rights to the research results?

Absolutely!  OSU can agree to provide our sponsors with an option to negotiate for an exclusive license to a patentable invention or to copyrightable software conceived or created during the sponsored research project. Note that tax rules and our standard practices for licensing generally preclude OSU from agreeing to royalties in advance, but once the intellectual property is conceived or created, we can begin discussion on specific, exclusive licensing terms and conditions.