Oregon State University IP Policy

Intellectual property refers to rights associated with intellectual creations, such as inventions, literary works, computer code, designs, names, images, and artistic works. For example, a patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling the patented invention. Patents, plant variety protections, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets are commonly recognized types of intellectual property.

Ownership of intellectual property created at OSU is set forth in OSU’s policy on intellectual property (University Policy 06-200). Except for academic works, OSU owns the intellectual property made by employees at OSU. Generally, OSU also owns material embodiments of inventions, such as biological materials and prototypes. Academic works, including scholarly and aesthetic works, are covered by copyrights that are generally retained by the OSU faculty who create them.

In most cases, non-employee students own the intellectual property they make at OSU. However, students may be required to assign to OSU intellectual property made with substantial use of OSU resources or as part of research projects with contractual obligations related to intellectual property. Subject to OSU’s acceptance, students may choose to assign to OSU intellectual property developed at OSU, even if such assignment is not required. When a student assigns intellectual property to OSU, they are treated in a similar manner to OSU employees.

Protecting intellectual property maximizes the impact of research conducted at OSU by ensuring the public and research sponsors fully benefit from their investment in research. Most federal, state, industry, and even non-profit sponsors of research require intellectual property management as a condition of funding research. Properly managing intellectual property and securing intellectual property rights also allows OSU faculty and researchers to fully benefit from intellectual property created at OSU.

OSU manages its intellectual property with the intent of maximizing OSU’s research, innovation, economic, and societal impact. Maximizing impact may include securing intellectual property rights and licensing those rights to existing or new companies that are well-positioned to use those rights to bring new products and services to market. New plant varieties, software solutions, green technologies, and life-changing therapeutics are just a few examples of new products that depend on intellectual property rights. By exclusively or non-exclusively licensing intellectual property rights to companies, OSU can provide the access or exclusivity companies need to raise money, invest in development, and ultimately commercialize new products and services. Careful management of OSU intellectual property also ensures that OSU meets its intellectual property obligations to federal, industry, and other research sponsors and collaborators.

Faculty and other OSU researchers who develop intellectual property as part of their research activities benefit in several ways. The licensing of intellectual property rights to companies often generates revenue for OSU through license fees and royalties. OSU has a generous revenue sharing practice, under which the creators of OSU intellectual property receive a share of the licensing revenue. Protecting and managing intellectual property creates an entrepreneurial research environment that attracts high quality students who are interested in both pushing the boundaries of human knowledge and solving real world problems. As a condition of funding for most federal, state, industry, and even non-profit sponsors, intellectual property management is also an important component of supporting and expanding research funding available to OSU faculty.

OSU-owned intellectual property arising from research and development activity at OSU is managed by the OSU Advantage team in the OSU Division of Research and Innovation. OSU Advantage team members work with researchers to assist with timely reporting of inventions and other intellectual property arising from OSU activities. An OSU Advantage team member will work with you to a) evaluate your reported discovery for potential intellectual property protection and commercial potential, b) pursue intellectual property protection and licensing opportunities, and c) ensure obligations to sponsors and collaborators are fully met.

OSU researchers are encouraged to publish or otherwise share the results of their research. Publications and seamless collaborations are essential for faculty successes and a means for dissemination of innovation, promotion, and acknowledgment of the important research at OSU. OSU Advantage works within the publication timeframes of our faculty to facilitate the publication process while also securing intellectual property rights as needed. In order to ensure the OSU Advantage team can secure intellectual property rights for your discovery or creation, contact them before any public sharing of the details of what you discovered or created; even if your research results are already published, contact the OSU Advantage team as there still may be time to protect and license your work.

From time to time, OSU employees choose to waive a portion of their revenue share to a department, college, or program of their choice. OSU appreciates the generosity of faculty and employees who choose to support OSU programs. An OSU employee who is entitled to receive a share of revenue received by OSU from the licensing and commercialization of intellectual property developed at OSU may waive any percentage of their share, provided such waiver is in accordance with the University Constructive Receipt policy. OSU has put policies in place to avoid any unintended tax consequences, but encourages OSU employees to always consult their own tax advisor.

Additional FAQs for faculty and students can be found here.

OSU’s current Intellectual Property Policy became effective April 12, 2023.

An "inventor" is defined by law generally as one who first conceives and reduces to practice any patentable subject matter. To be an inventor, a person must have contributed to the conception of the invention. Co-authors of research may, or may not, be considered (by law) to be Co-inventors. It is very important to correctly identify the inventors of an invention; issued patents can be invalidated on this basis. For the purposes of the Invention Disclosure form, list all of those who significantly contributed to the conception of the invention. OSU Advantage will make distributions to significant contributors even if they are not included on the final patent application as an inventor, if all inventors are in agreement.

You can connect with OSU Advantage by reaching out to our general email address and we will connect you with a team member to get you started down the right path. To start a conversation about or report an invention, you can connect with our intellectual property and licensing specialists through our "I Have an Idea" site. For questions about working with industry, reach out to our industry contracting specialists. If you are interested in starting your own company, connect with the Advantage Accelerator.

Faculty, researchers, and OSU employees should contact OSU Advantage whenever they have a question about:

• Intellectual property, including inventions, patents, computer code, plant varieties, and copyrights
• Starting a company based on OSU intellectual property
• Research or licensing agreements with commercial partners
• Exchanging materials, such as biological materials, with other institutions, companies, or individuals

The best time to connect with OSU Advantage is prior to any public disclosure of an invention or other form of intellectual property. A public disclosure is any non-confidential sharing of an idea or invention – including printed and online publications, abstracts, posters, conference presentations, oral defense (thesis or dissertation), or any other public sharing. It is also best to contact OSU Advantage before initiating any licensing discussions or distributing material embodiments (i.e. plasmids, computer code, new plant varieties) of OSU intellectual property. If publication or other sharing has already occurred, we encourage you to contact OSU Advantage as soon as possible, so that we can work with you to determine whether we can still secure intellectual property rights.

The most important thing you can do to help OSU protect and secure intellectual property rights is to contact the OSU Advantage team before any public sharing of the details of your invention or creation. We’ll work with you to create a plan to evaluate and protect your invention or creation.

OSU Advantage covers all of the costs associated with patenting and licensing an invention. If there is an inventor from another institution or company, the expenses are usually shared with those other entities. When an invention is licensed, we normally require the licensee to reimburse OSU for past or future patent costs.

Depending on the complexity of the invention, the paths chosen in a patent application, and the specific examiner assigned to review the invention in the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), it will generally take between 3-5 years for a patent to issue.

The time commitment necessary from the inventors varies, but it is important for the inventors and the patent attorney/agent to connect frequently during the initial filing, making sure the language captures the invention adequately; a few years later interaction is necessary once the USPTO examines the patent application to respond to questions and provided differentiation over examiner-noted publications and patents.

Oregon State University has a generous revenue sharing practice. Details on how OSU shares revenue derived from the licensing of OSU intellectual property with inventors or developers is set forth in OSU’s policy on intellectual property (University Policy 06-200).

OSU Advantage sometimes decides not to move forward on protecting an invention, if a determination is made that an invention has limited patentability or markets, or if the best path to transfer the invention is determined to be through publication.

Publications and seamless collaborations are essential for faculty successes and a means for dissemination of innovation, promotion, and acknowledgment of the important research at OSU. OSU Advantage works within the publication timeframes of our faculty to facilitate the publication process while also securing intellectual property rights as needed.

Even when research results are already published, there still may be time to protect and license your work, so we encourage you to contact us.