For Researchers

The Licensing Process

Goals

A goal of UC Berkeley’s Office of Technology Licensing (OTL) is to establish license agreements that lead to the fast and broad commercialization of Berkeley technologies to: (1) benefit the public, (2) fund research and education on the campus, and (3) reward inventors for their ingenuity. Therefore, we are motivated to expeditiously negotiate licenses with reasonable terms that consider business plans, market economics, and technology stage.

Timing

The OTL closely monitors the cadence and time it takes to complete a license. Please see below for tips on how to expedite the...

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Guides to Industry-University Relationships

Read more about Guides to Industry-University Relationships

Should I sign a confidentiality agreement with the startup, and what should I know about consulting agreements?

Signing confidential agreements could limit your future ability to publish, collaborate, or even perform sponsored research. Consequently, it’s not a good practice to sign confidentiality agreements, and you should be judicious about what confidential information encumbers you.

IPIRA can provide a set of provisions that are recommended as best practices for including in a consulting agreement between faculty and a company.

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If my startup advising results in IP, then what should I do, and who owns it?

Under UC policy, employees agree to disclose to the university their development of patentable inventions and copyrightable software. Furthermore, UC can take an ownership interest in any resulting patent rights or software copyrights if the activity that led to the intellectual property: (a) was funded via the university, (b) used material university resources, or (c) is part of the scope of work of the university employee.

Your advising to startups is not likely to be funded via the university, or use material university resources. Nonetheless, if you develop inventions or...