The Effect of IPR Issues on Industry-University Collaborations:

Workshop Objectives and Scope of Participant Expertise
 
Recent discussions and hearings on the Bayh-Dole Act, and the increasing importance of industry-university collaborations to promote U.S. innovation, have generated greater interest in ways to develop long-term relationships between industry and university partners that will be beneficial for the partners as well as the U.S. economy. The overall objective of this workshop was information sharing in order to facilitate future partnerships by making the stakeholders aware of the range of available models and approaches to establish mutually beneficial partnerships. The program was structured to focus primarily on the chemical research enterprise as expectations and best practices may be different for other industry segments.
 

Specifics details of the overall objectives follow:
a) Share information about the current approaches to establish partnerships,
b) Identify challenges to crafting timely and mutually beneficial agreements between industry and universities,
c) Share best practices for partnerships that have facilitated long term relationships,
d) Discuss implications and interpretation of U.S. policies and tax laws that impact IPR issues,
e) Discuss best practices for risk sharing,
f) Share examples of partnership models utilized in other countries,
g) Develop an understanding of implications of different partnership approaches.
 
To ensure representation of broad range of views and approaches, workshop invitees included:
a) Industry representatives from global companies, including External Technology Officers and Legal Councils,
b) Industry representatives from SMEs,
c) University research professors,
d) University representatives from Technology Transfer Offices and Legal Councils (Professors and Tech Transfer Offices don’t necessarily see eye to eye!)
e) Representatives of foreign universities who have significant partnerships with US companies,
f) Staff from the Hill who have been involved in crafting IPR related legislation,
g) Staff from PTO and Dept. of Commerce involved in national and international IPR issues.

Permalink