Intellectual Property & Technology Transfer Flashcards

A Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) is used to govern the transfer of:

Answer: Tangible research materials between institutions or companies

An MTA is a contract that defines the terms and conditions under which tangible biological or chemical materials (e.g., cell lines, compounds, reagents) are shared between organizations.

Copyright protection for works created by university employees in the scope of their employment generally belongs to:

Answer: The university as the employer under the work-for-hire doctrine

Under the work-for-hire doctrine, copyrights in works created by employees within the scope of their employment typically vest in the employer (the university), though many institutions have policies granting faculty rights to scholarly works.

Which of the following is an advantage of maintaining a trade secret over seeking patent protection?

Answer: Trade secrets can be maintained indefinitely as long as secrecy is preserved

Unlike patents which expire after 20 years and require public disclosure, trade secrets can last indefinitely as long as reasonable steps are taken to maintain their confidentiality.

The SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) program requires that small businesses receiving awards:

Answer: Retain the principal research at U.S.-based small businesses and keep data rights

SBIR policy requires that the principal research be conducted by the small business concern and that data rights are retained by the awardee, supporting commercialization by domestic small businesses.

An inter-institutional agreement (IIA) in technology transfer is typically needed when:

Answer: An invention is jointly made by researchers at two or more institutions

When researchers at two or more institutions jointly develop an invention, an inter-institutional agreement defines how the institutions will share ownership, costs, and commercialization revenues.

In a sponsored research agreement, an option-to-license provision typically grants the sponsor:

Answer: The right to negotiate a license to sponsor-funded inventions within a defined period

An option-to-license provision gives the sponsor a time-limited right to negotiate and execute a license for inventions arising from the sponsored research before the university offers them to other parties.

Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) are used in technology transfer to:

Answer: Assess the maturity and development stage of a technology for commercialization

TRLs (originally developed by NASA, scale 1-9) provide a standardized framework to assess how mature a technology is, from basic research through full commercial deployment.