Intellectual Property Right Guidelines

Intellectual Property Right Guidelines for Council

Preamble

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) comprises a variety of different legal rights, which protect applications of human intellect that may be of commercial value. Those most relevant to the activities of COUNCIL which includes patents, which are only granted after an extensive legal process; copyright, designs; “know how”, which can be protected by confidentiality agreements and Trade Marks.

This policy sets out the COUNCIL’s position concerning the ownership, protection and exploitation of intellectual property. As a Policy Statement, it does not aim to deal exhaustively with all possibilities, but sets a framework within which decisions can be reached in individual cases.

In all matters of Intellectual Property Rights and Procedures, the intention is to benefit the COUNCIL staff and the Public at large, while respecting the legitimate rights of others. Intellectual Property (IP) as provided, comprises any and all types of IP produced or obtained by the COUNCIL, its staff (including those commissioned on a fixed-term basis) and non-COUNCIL personnel participating in a research project sponsored by COUNCIL.

The Intellectual Property Rights policy of CCRAS will help scientists in their efforts to identify, protect and commercially exploit all new knowledge generated through research work.

Major Objective:

1. To protect knowledge generated through IP rights, ownership of biological and other material and data generated using CCRAS funds and facilities.
2. To inform that all employees of CCRAS are governed by the IP policy of CCRAS and all inventions and discoveries made during the course of their employment, belong to the CCRAS.
3. To create awareness among CCRAS scientists about the procedure to protect new intellectual property generated.
4. To develop and implement a policy at CCRAS institutions that encourages scientists and technology generators through a reward system.

Guidelines

1. To make scientists aware that all inventions and discoveries made during the course of their employment belong to the COUNCIL. Any discovery or invention carried in whole or in part, or under the direction of any staff of the COUNCIL, which is supported by COUNCIL or by funds controlled or administered by the COUNCIL, shall belong to the COUNCIL.
2. All inventions must be disclosed properly to the COUNCIL by all staff of COUNCIL to begin the process of protecting, patenting, and transferring. The invention need not be complete when staff first inform theCOUNCIL. Additional information can be added to as it is developed, until the invention is completed and a working title for the invention is given.
3. The authority to manage inventions and discoveries,including technology/know-how that may be licensable but may not be patented or patentable, is vested in the Director of the COUNCIL,. The Director may delegate this authority under this policy to any other person in the COUNCIL as per need to evaluate and obtain patent, as deemed necessary. Such inventions are to be assigned to COUNCIL for commercialisation.
4. COUNCIL will utilize all of its IPs itself. In case COUNCIL is interested in commercialization of a particular IP it will transfer the IP to interested parties by way of licensing.
5. In the event COUNCIL commissions others, or is commissioned by others, to engage in cooperative research and development of technologies, ownership of IP derived from those research and development projects shall be determined by the respective cooperation contract.
6. To the best possible extent, publication of research results should be made only after patent application is filed. In the event the publication must be made beforehand, the patent application is filed within six months after the publication.
7. The Director of COUNCIL is the highest authority concerning COUNCILs management and operations of IP.
8. The Legal Department is charged with the responsibility of IP strategies, planning and other IP matters concerning COUNCIL as a whole. The IP and promotional departments within each laboratory are responsible for, among other IP-related matters, the application, recordation, registration, licensing, and assignment of IP in their laboratory.
9. Inventions, patents, trademarks, and know-how are made available to the public through contractual arrangements called licenses.

Technology Transfer

The transfer of technology from the research institute to industry, when a patent is licensed, COUNCIL still retains patent ownership, but allows assignor to make and/or use and/or sell the invention.

A license agreement is a contract between parties and includes any provisions agreed to by the parties. Typically, a license agreement details what use may be made by the licensee of the invention (made, used, or sold); what payments will be made to the licensor (the COUNCIL) for a period, normally retaining the right in the inventions for transfer to other industry.