UK universities have now generated significant income from intellectual property licensing. The traditional model, particularly (but not only) in the pharmaceutical sector, has been to grant exclusive, worldwide licences to major, international companies. Another model has been for universities to set up small ‘spin-out’ companies, to attract investment in those companies, and to assign or license the university’s intellectual property to the company in return for shares in the company. In some universities, the spin-out company route seems to have been preferred over the traditional licensing model.
The purpose of this Practical Guide is three fold:
1 to provide an introduction to licence agreements and their terms, including discussion of legal, practical and negotiating issues;
2 to provide some suggested templates together with guidelines for their completion;
3 to consider and discuss some underlying issues which are problematic or of particular concern for universities.
To read more, download the attached document - this is a member-only resource: last updated 2014