National Code of Practice for Managing Intellectual Property ... - Forfás

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issues of IP ownership, exploitation rights, risk and appropriate rewards. They should agree arrangements
for IP access by each partner that are appropriate to the specific collaboration and that will allow full exploitation.
Partners should review and, if necessary, refine this exploitation plan before seeking any form of IP protection.
D.3 ACCESS TO AND USE OF IP BY PARTNERS FOR EDUCATION AND RESEARCH
Partner(s) should retain rights to use and access knowledge and data arising from the project for the purposes of
research, while respecting confidentiality agreements. Access to background IP should be considered as part of
the ongoing discussion on background IP over the course of the project. Partners should recognise the possible
limits on access required by the other party. In the case of the PRO, for example, access to enterprise background
IP may be limited by confidentiality requirements concerning potentially patentable matter or third party rights
to the background IP; in the case of industry, access to PRO background IP may be limited by the PRO having
specific applications tied up with third parties or having reserved certain elements of background IP for its own
commercialisation activities.
D.4 TRANSFER OF OWNERSHIP AND LICENSING TO PARTIES OTHER THAN THE PARTNERS
The value of IP is maximised when it is exploited in as many ways as possible. The partners should be able to
grant licences to enable parties other than the original partners to exploit the IP in non-competing fields of use,
or, alternatively, to transfer ownership to third parties.
D.5 EXPLOITATION IN IRELAND
Exploitation options should be considered based on the commercial evaluation of the technology and the technology
transfer policy of the PRO, giving consideration to exploitation firstly within Ireland and thereafter the European
Economic Area (EEA) and globally, and ensuring always that the option chosen is regarded as the best form of
exploitation for the maximum benefit to the Irish economy.
D.6 GOVERNING LAW
Irish law should govern collaborative research agreements.