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Additional Information
Unpatented Materials
Experimental research often results in innovation which, for reasons outlined below, may not be protected by patents or copyrights. Tangible items produced during the course of academic research, especially biological materials (e.g., proteins, nucleic acid molecules or libraries, hybridomas, other cell lines or transgenic animals) often are not patented.
Patentability of Biological Materials
Although it is clear that patents may be obtained on novel biological materials, there are a number of reasons why seeking to patent such a material may not be desireable or necessary. For example, while an individual cell line may be valuable, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), however, often will not award patent claims broad enough to cover alternative cell lines with similar properties, and thus the patent obtained has limited value in a commercial sense. At the same time, a transgenic animal or a hybridoma that produces an especially useful antibody may be so difficult or labor-intensive to re-create and validate, that a company will prefer to license the original published material, even if it has not been patented, thereby saving expensive development time.
Licensing of Unpatented Materials
Unpatented materials can be licensed on either an exclusive or non-exclusive basis. Companies may use the licensed materials for diverse purposes, including as research reagents (either for commercial distribution or internal research), screening tools, diagnostics or therapeutics. Licensing of unpatented biological materials is not subject to certain limitations that apply to the licensing of patented intellectual property: for example, royalty payments may be obtained from sales in any country, not just those countries where patent protection exists, and royalties are not limited by the life of patents. Finally, it is not necessary for Harvard to recover patent expenses out of royalties received from the licensing of unpatented materials, leaving more royalty income available for distribution, including to inventors and their research laboratories, under the Harvard IP Policy.
More information on the licensing of unpatented materials can be found in Sections IV and V (paragraph E.2) of the Harvard IP Policy.
Requests for Unpatented or Other Materials
If you are asked to provide your unpatented or other tangible materials to anyone outside of Harvard, OTD will assist you in fulfilling that request, whether under a simple material transfer agreement or a formal license. Information on material transfers generally, as well as a request form for material transfer agreements, can be found here.
Additional Information
Unpatented Materials
Experimental research often results in innovation which, for reasons outlined below, may not be protected by patents or copyrights. Tangible items produced during the course of academic research, especially biological materials (e.g., proteins, nucleic acid molecules or libraries, hybridomas, other cell lines or transgenic animals) often are not patented.
Patentability of Biological Materials
Although it is clear that patents may be obtained on novel biological materials, there are a number of reasons why seeking to patent such a material may not be desireable or necessary. For example, while an individual cell line may be valuable, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), however, often will not award patent claims broad enough to cover alternative cell lines with similar properties, and thus the patent obtained has limited value in a commercial sense. At the same time, a transgenic animal or a hybridoma that produces an especially useful antibody may be so difficult or labor-intensive to re-create and validate, that a company will prefer to license the original published material, even if it has not been patented, thereby saving expensive development time.
Licensing of Unpatented Materials
Unpatented materials can be licensed on either an exclusive or non-exclusive basis. Companies may use the licensed materials for diverse purposes, including as research reagents (either for commercial distribution or internal research), screening tools, diagnostics or therapeutics. Licensing of unpatented biological materials is not subject to certain limitations that apply to the licensing of patented intellectual property: for example, royalty payments may be obtained from sales in any country, not just those countries where patent protection exists, and royalties are not limited by the life of patents. Finally, it is not necessary for Harvard to recover patent expenses out of royalties received from the licensing of unpatented materials, leaving more royalty income available for distribution, including to inventors and their research laboratories, under the Harvard IP Policy.More information on the licensing of unpatented materials can be found in Sections IV and V (paragraph E.2) of the Harvard IP Policy.