IPR ( Intellectual Property Rights) is the name for the legal protection of technical inventions, methods or products.
If you have an invention or product, it can be protected under a patent, trademark or utility model. If your invention includes any software, it may be possible to protect it under copyright law.
The business developers can advise and guide you in the process of protection your invention.
The ownership of your invention depends on your employment status. If you are a researcher at SDU, for example, your invention belongs to SDU if it has come about as part of your work at university. Ownership is often shared between several people and departments, such as SDU and RSD.
Considerations regarding ownership:
- What funds or resources are being used to manufacture the invention? And what are the conditions for the collaboration?
- What is the employment status of the inventors/researchers during the preparation stage?
- What legal conditions relate to the IPR?
Yes, and a student can also be the sole contributor to the invention. A student may have personal ownership of the invention, but ownership of the invention may also lie elsewhere. This applies, for example, if the student is employed at SDU/RSD, or if ownership is granted as one of the conditions for participating in the research project that has led directly to the invention.
If a student has contributed to an invention that employees at SDU/RSD have prepared, the student can transfer ownership of his share to SDU/RSD in exchange for the same rights and the same rights to remuneration as an employee at SDU/RSD.
Yes, but the possibility of protecting your invention may be affected by publication We recommend that you always contact us for advice. Once your research results are published or disclosed, the potential for protecting your invention may be limited or minimised.
In this context, publication is understood to be broader than a scientific publication and may also include a public lecture, teaching, posters, electronic pre-publication of articles, a dissertation/thesis or news stories. Our business development advisers can help you decide what you can and should do in cases of urgent need.
Report your research before publication
Our business developers can help you decide, what you can and should do, if you have a urgent need.
Yes, but if you want to pursue the commercial aspects of your results, it is important that the material is carefully dated and the conditions of use are clear so that we can determine whether your use of the material affects the commercialisation potential of your own research results.
If you want to use material from external partners, we can help you with the signing of an MTA that clarifies the terms of use.
Yes, but it is important to document the commercially relevant aspects that you want to share with others and the conditions of use. If you want to send material to an external business partner, you must have entered into an MTA prior to this. You may also need to have a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to protect your own research.
All parties involved in a financially committed research project must conclude a cooperation agreement. This should state the partners' rights to new inventions. If you are employed at SDU or within RSD, it is the institution that has the rights to these inventions.
A company or authority may have entered into an agreement to acquire the right to inventions from a co-funded research project. Such cooperation agreements often provide a limited period of time to negotiate a licence for any patent or IPR developed based on the research.
A company or authority does not hold the rights to research that are clearly outside the area of research. It is therefore important to define the research area - including in particular the field of use for the company in a cooperation agreement.
Read about cooperation agreements
You cannot enter into a legal agreement regarding a research project without the approval of the legal team at SDU RIO. If you need advice and/or support regarding the negotiation of sponsored agreements, you are welcome to contact the lawyers at contracts@sdu.dk.
You have a duty to mention everyone in the report - even when they are not employed at SDU or within RSD. SDU RIO clarifies the rights of persons or departments.
SDU RIOs business development advisers collaborate with colleagues from Denmark and the rest of the world, and are experienced with both clarifying rights and commercialising jointly owned research.