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Intellectual Property
What is intellectual property?
Intellectual property (IP) can be defined broadly as products of the mind. These include written works; creative works including performances; designs and plans; inventions and prototypes; branding and trademarks; and – as UniServices’ Māori Intellectual Property Policy makes clear – traditional knowledge and methodologies.
In general, we at UniServices are the stewards of the research-informed IP of Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland. We protect and nurture IP arising from the University so the most can be made of it, both for inventors and for all those who can benefit from the ideas.
How do researchers benefit from the IP they create?
Researchers will be invited to sign a revenue sharing agreement where they share in a percentage of any profits made from commercialisation of the research.
Usually, IP will be commercialised through a start-up established by the creators of the IP. UniServices licenses any rights of the University to the IP into the company. Typically, this will be for no more than 15 percent of the equity so the inventors retain the vast majority of the shares.
Any investment from UniServices via the University of Auckland Inventors’ Fund is treated as an investment in exchange for further equity.
UniServices also has extensive relationships with industry players and investors so where the IP creators don’t want to establish a company, licensing to an existing company may be an option. In that case, the creators of the IP will benefit from the licensing arrangements, receiving a share of the returns to UniServices from the licence or other arrangement.
What are the requirements for a patent?
For an idea or invention to be patentable, it must be new (novel).
This means the idea:
- Must not be publicly disclosed or used before filing a patent application.
- Must be inventive – that is, it must not be an obvious variation on existing products or publications.
- Must be sufficiently described.
Who is an inventor?
Inventorship means who is listed as an inventor on a patent application. The criteria for determining inventorship are different to those applied to determining authorship of a publication. For example, the supervisor of the person who conceived the invention is not generally an inventor.
In general, an inventor is anyone who:
- Conceived the initial idea which defined the research that led to the invention.
- Devised the experiments/materials that form the basis of the patent application.
- Carried out any novel experiments disclosed in the patent specification to validate the invention and which required that person to go beyond merely following standard protocol.
- Interpreted the data disclosed in the patent application, particularly if the data was unexpected or its implications were unclear.
