Manage your research for commercialisation

2 MINUTE READ

Understand how you can use others’ IP, share IP and deal with the rights of your research sponsor.

Publication and protection

Protecting IP does not mean you can't publish the results of your research. You can protect its commercial value if you act early.

Previous publications can affect a patent application in Australia. It's best to submit an IP disclosure form well before you publish.

Outside Australia, the situation is different in each country.

In most countries, if you share the IP through publication or presentation in some form, the potential for patent protection can be restricted or minimal.

Be sure to inform your Business Development team member if you have shared, or are planning to share, the IP publicly. This could be in a:

presentation
lecture
poster
abstract
website description
research proposal submission
dissertation
publication.

Using IP from others

If you use material or IP from others in your research:

document the date and conditions of use of the material. We can decide if this use could affect the ownership and commercialisation potential of any later IP.
fill out an incoming material transfer agreement (MTA) if you want to use materials from external collaborators.

Sharing IP with others

If you want to share material, research tools or IP with others to further their research:

document what you want to share with others and the conditions of their use.
fill out an outgoing material transfer agreement (MTA) if you want to send materials to external collaborators.

You may also need to complete a confidentiality agreement to protect research results or IP.

Rights of the research sponsor

A research contract must specify the IP rights of the sponsor. These rights vary from one contract to the next.

In some cases:

the University keeps ownership of the IP coming from sponsored research.
the sponsor has rights to get a license to the defined and expected results of the research in a nominated field.

In other cases, the sponsor has a limited time to negotiate a license for any IP developed as the result of the research.

For help understanding, initiating and dealing with research contracts, contact your Business Development team member.

Consulting

In a consultancy arrangement, a researcher provides defined, specialist advice to a customer for a fee.

If you're thinking about consultancy, talk to your Department. Make sure the proposed consulting arrangement meets Department and University policies. This includes policies around: