Technology Licensing
For information about UCI inventions, please search the UCI Available Technologies database.
Who owns patentable inventions?
- The University imposes patent obligations on all persons employed on University research projects funded by an outside agency or company or who use university facilities.
- Rights to inventions or discoveries arising from research conducted at UCI belong to the University with inventorship being determined by United States patent law.
- Access via a license to University technology is negotiated in good faith using industry standards.
- Research sponsors who pay all direct and indirect costs of the research may be granted first right to negotiate an exclusive license to inventions that result from this research.
For further details, please see the UC Patent Policy and UC Patent Acknowledgement Form (pdf).
UC License Terms
Typical license terms include:
- Scope
- Right to sub-license
- License issue fee & maintenance
- Royalties
- Use of name
- Patent cost reimbursement
- Diligence and progress reporting
- Patent infringement reporting
- Indemnification and warranties
Please see the Summary Terms for a Technology Licensing Agreement (pdf) for further details.
Equity Participation in Start-Up Companies
The new UC Equity Policy permits acceptance of equity as partial consideration for receiving a UC license. This new policy allows small or start-up companies to minimize cash outlays for licensing costs and to concentrate those resource on research and product development. This allows UCI to participate in the entire success of the company partner as opposed to benefitting from only those products that actually contain the licensed product. Highlights of this policy include:
- Equity in lieu of cash can be accepted for up to one-third of the license fee, but not normally in exhange for royalty points.
- UCI can retain up to10% maximum ownership.
- UCI must have a passive role in the company and will not participate in the Board of Directors.
- Faculty receive inventor shares directly and immediately upon conclusion of license.
- Clinical trials at UCI are discouraged when UCI is an equity holder in the company conducting the trials.
- UCI equity, once acquired, is managed by the Office of the Treasurer of the Regents.
For further details, please see the UC Equity Policy.
