Property Development
Discussing Agreements with Potential Business & Industry Sponsors
Typically, Research Foundation staff in OBIC or the Engineering Experiment Station negotiate agreements with business and industry sponsors. These staff members are experienced in such negotiations and can generally come to terms with the sponsor on an agreement that meets everyone's needs.
Among the issues of concern are:
Payment Terms:
- "Full Payment in Advance" means the project is fixed-price and the company will pay in full upon signing the agreement. This is the preferred payment method, but is not usually favored by sponsors.
- Advances or "start-up" payments, usually upon final signatures on the agreement, should be large enough to cover any significant start-up costs such as the purchase of major pieces of equipment.
- Periodic payments should keep pace with rate of expenditure and accommodate major expenditures.
- Final payments: Some sponsors propose 50 percent payment upon signing the agreement and 50 percent upon receipt of the final report and/or deliverable(s). Unless the project is very short (a few months), such an arrangement could have the Research Foundation covering significant expenditures for a long period of time. Five to ten percent of the total project cost is an acceptable amount to be withheld until project completion.
Reports and/or Deliverables:
- Sponsor "approval" of a report is undesirable. This can imply more sponsor control over reporting of outcomes than is reasonable.
- Report schedules should be realistic for the project. "On demand" schedules are difficult for investigators to comply with, given the other demands on their time.
Publications:
- Freedom to publish and to use data is an academic requirement, and the university's position is that the Research Foundation (actually, the principal investigator as represented by the Research Foundation for the purpose of the agreement) owns the data, research materials, reports, etc., but the sponsor receives copies and is given rights to use the materials for certain purposes.
- Sponsor review of publications, presentations, etc., if required, should be done within a specified, and preferably short, time. If a graduate student thesis is involved, there should be no delay in the student's graduation.
Title to Intellectual Property:
- Title to any inventions, improvements or copyrights that result from work performed by the university belongs to the university per Ohio Revised Code 3345.14.