Agreements

KUCTC negotiates six types of agreements with industry and outside institutions:

Confidential Disclosure Agreements (CDA)
If you are considering licensing a technology for which no patent has yet issued, KU is willing to enter into a confidential disclosure agreement (CDA). A CDA allows you to receive copies of the claims submitted with a patent application as well as additional confidential know-how that may be provided by the researchers on an as-available basis. In return for access to the claims and other confidential information, the CDA states that you agree to keep information that is not in the public domain confidential. In addition, you agree not to use the confidential information without first obtaining a license. There is no fee involved.

Issued patents are not confidential. KU is happy to provide this information at your request without a CDA. When you find a KU technology of interest, simply call or e-mail KUCTC. If you would like to investigate an unpatented technology further, we will prepare a CDA and send it to you for signature. KUCTC recognizes the need of industry sponsors to protect the confidentiality of their own information. When a sponsor provides proprietary information to a researcher or investigator, that information will be held in confidence. Sponsors may be granted 30 days to review proposed publications and up to an additional 90-day delay, if needed, to protect intellectual property.

License Agreements (LI)
A license agreement gives you the ability to use KU's rights under its intellectual property for a technology in order to develop that technology for commercialization. KUCTC license agreements typically include the following elements:

• License Fee
  This fee is paid after the license agreement is signed. The fee amount depends on the market value of the technology and other considerations.
• Patent Expenses
  These fees reflect the costs that are incurred for filing and protecting the technology. If foreign patents are sought for the technology, the fees may be higher.
• Development Period
  When a technology needs to be developed over a period of time, KUCTC license agreements often provide for a development period. This means that before the license agreement is finalized, the licensee must submit a brief technology development plan. Thereafter, biannual development reports are required. These reports help to document that active development of a technology is taking place, a requirement for licensing federally funded research. In projects with long development timetables, such as pharmaceuticals, certain progress milestones may be specified along with appropriate milestone payments. These help reduce initial license fees on high-risk projects since these milestone payments are only made if development continues successfully.
• Royalties
  These fees are paid when products using the technology are sold. They may be calculated on a percentage-of-sales annual fee or fee-per-unit basis, depending on the circumstances.
• Minimum Royalty
  At the end of the development period, if any, KUCTC expects a minimum royalty each year. This is set at a reduced amount compared to the expected royalties. Royalties actually earned offset the minimum royalty. These minimums are designed to encourage the continued active marketing of the technology.

Option Agreements (OP)
These give the company the right to review a technology for a period of time to ascertain its practicality and value. During the option period, KUCTC agrees to keep open the availability of a license for the company reviewing this technology. A fee is charged.

Material Transfer Agreements (MTA)
These permit biological materials and similar specimens owned by KU to be transferred to researchers at other universities or companies.

Inter-Institutional Agreements (IIA)
These are special agreements between KU and other universities, federal labs, non-profit foundations and industry. These agreements permit KUCTC to detail which institution takes the lead in marketing a technology, how revenues are to be shared between institutions and how patent costs are attributed between institutions when individuals from other organizations are co-inventors on a technology.

Sponsored Research Agreements (SRA)