Inventions are commercialized through licenses. The Berkeley OTL licenses Berkeley's patent rights, personal property rights, and certain copyrights to companies for commercial development. Technology licenses grant companies the right to sell goods and services based on the University's inventions in exchange for fair compensation to the University. Licenses can be exclusive, nonexclusive, co-exclusive, and can also be limited in duration, specific geography, or particular purpose. Regardless of the type of license, the University retains the right to continue to practice the inventions, and otherwise use the licensed items, for education and research purposes. If you are entrepreneurial and are interested in commercializing the rights through a startup company, please inform the licensing professional and start the discussion early. To learn more, click here to read our Inventor's Guide to Technology Transfer. Also see below under "Will the university license "my" invention to at startup company that I founded?
Reimbursement of patent costs is commonly obtained in licenses. Licensing revenue is distributed annually and is divided between the inventors, their department, and the campus.
The OTL seeks corporate licensees that are qualified to commercialize Berkeley inventions and copyrights, then negotiates and manages the resultant agreements. Some corporate licensees have either sponsored research at the University that resulted in the licensed invention, or have collaborated with University researchers. Some discoveries may be protected both by patents and copyrights (as in the case of copyrightable software containing patentable algorithms). Others, such as certain cell lines, transgenic animals, plasmids, certain software, may be licensed without patent or copyright protection under the University's property rights.