| UMB partners with industry to develop commercial products via sponsored research and license agreements. Sponsored Research
Sponsored research agreements allow companies to take advantage of UMB resources by funding research in UMB laboratories by UMB scientists. The research project and budget are determined by the company and the UMB scientists and the company receives data in exchange for the research funding. When proprietary intellectual property arises out of sponsored research, UMB seeks to provide the sponsoring company with rights to develop the intellectual property for commercial purposes via a license agreement.
License Agreements
Proprietary intellectual property is constantly in development at UMB. IP may be generated at UMB but in the public domain, or copyrighted, or, most commonly, protected by a patent application. If IP arises from a sponsored research agreement, the sponsor generally has a first right to negotiate a license to UMB's rights in the IP. If no pre-existing rights in the IP exist, then UMB generally files a patent application and seeks to license the rights in the IP to one or more companies, exclusively or non-exclusively, in all fields or in a limited field of use, as appropriate. Often there is post-license collaboration between UMB and the licensee to develop the technology, via further sponsored research or consulting agreements, or simply via collegial discussions. Our goal is to achieve the progression of technologies developed at UMB from the bench to the clinic. The licensing process takes anywhere from two weeks to six months to complete, and consideration to UMB consists of royalties, upfront fees, and reimbursement of patent expenses to provide UMB and our scientists with a reasonable share of profits that reflects UMB's relative contribution to development and commercialization of the technology. Consideration in the form of equity can replace any of the above. Any company contacting one of our licensing professionals with interest in a technology can expect to receive a preliminary terms sheet within days. Please don't hesitate to contact us for more information! | |
