STUDENT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AGREEMENT ... - …



UCL Electronic and Electrical Engineering

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY GENERATED BY STUDENTS

Under the 1977 Patents Act, all intellectual property (e.g. copyright, patents, design rights) developed by employees in the course of their normal duties belongs to their employer. UCL, like most other universities, takes steps to protect the research findings of its academic staff. Considerable effort and resources are put into protecting inventions (e.g. through patent protection) and creating companies that can successfully commercialise UCL inventions. UCL recognises the substantial contribution made by academic staff in generating new intellectual property and their involvement in the exploitation process. Accordingly, UCL’s Financial Regulations provide for a substantial part of revenue received from commercialisation to be given to the inventor(s).

As a student at UCL, you are not a College employee and therefore the university does not automatically own intellectual property generated by you in the course of your degree course. However, there are occasions when the College requires such ownership. As an example, projects form a part of many degree programmes at undergraduate, masters and postgraduate level. Such projects are usually proposed by members of academic staff in your department and will often be connected in some way to that academic’s on-going research interests. As a student, you may be joining a team to investigate one particular aspect of a much larger research programme. This is usually of great benefit to you, as rather than starting from a blank sheet, you can draw on the considerable expertise, reputation and infrastructure of the group and thereby get a valuable head-start in your research project. There are, however, two serious intellectual property issues associated with inviting students to work closely with existing research teams:

the intellectual property developed by the student will sometimes be needed to enable use to be made of the whole technology - in such cases UCL does not want to find itself in a position where a small gap in its IP portfolio precludes it from being able to license the technology.

the intellectual property will often be based on advice and ideas contributed by many others in the laboratory, and may be based on confidential, proprietary or otherwise valuable information that already belongs to UCL or a research sponsor.

Therefore at the start of your course you will be asked to sign an undertaking, whereby you agree that on request you will assign your rights in intellectual property generated during your course of study to UCL. In return, UCL will treat you as a member of staff for the purposes of royalty sharing (in accordance with the College’s Financial Regulations). Currently such revenues (after deduction of appropriate costs) are distributed on the following basis:

For Revenues less than £50,000: Inventors receive 50% of the revenues, 10% goes to the department in which the inventors reside and the remainder goes to UCL central funds.

For Revenues less than £50,000: Inventors receive 30% of the revenues, 10% goes to the department in which the inventors reside and the remainder goes to UCL central funds.

Also during your course of study, your supervisor may request that you sign a confidentiality agreement, under which you agree to keep confidential any information that is disclosed to you relating to the project.

If you are in any doubt about the meaning or effect of the form then you should seek independent legal advice before signing it. If you decline to sign this form then you may be offered an alternative project on which to work. In any circumstances:

participation in the research should not interfere with the assessment of your academic performance.

your future career choices should not be closed by the choice of work in a confidential area of research

UCL Electronic and Electrical Engineering

STUDENT NAME:

Student Address:

Date:

BEng / MSc / MEng : Intellectual Property Agreement

The purpose of this document is to record certain terms on which UCL is willing to provide you with access to certain UCL facilities and to permit you to participate in certain UCL research projects, as agreed between yourself and members of academic staff within the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering (together described as the “UCL Benefits”). These terms are in accordance with the requirements of UCL’s Financial Regulations.

Attached to this letter is a document that outlines UCL’s Intellectual Property policy in regard to students working on UCL projects. This describes the circumstances in which UCL will own intellectual property generated by its employees and students. In certain circumstances, inventions and other intellectual property generated by you whilst you are a student at UCL, will belong to UCL. In such cases, you will qualify as a potential recipient of a share of any revenues obtained from the commercialisation of the intellectual property, under the UCL Inventor Compensation Scheme.

In consideration of UCL providing you with the UCL Benefits, and agreeing that you will be treated as a UCL employee for the purposes of the UCL Revenue Sharing arrangement (as described in the UCL Financial Regulations), you agree to be bound by the terms of UCL’s Intellectual Property policy. You also agree to sign such documents as UCL may require from time to time, which will ensure that the Intellectual Property is vested in UCL in accordance with the Intellectual Property Policy.

Please countersign the enclosed copy of this letter to indicate your agreement to the terms of this letter and the Intellectual Property policy.

Yours sincerely

Dr Steven Schooling

Head of UCL Ventures

I acknowledge that I have received a copy of the UCL Intellectual Property Policy and have read and understood its terms. I agree to be bound by the terms of this letter and the UCL Intellectual Property Policy.

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signed print name

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home address date

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