COVID-19 Licensing Guidelines
 

COVID-19 Licensing Guidelines

The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly moved the work of technology transfer offices from university and other non-profit research organizations to the battle’s front line. In order to support our Membership worldwide and enable a swift end to the crisis, AUTM is providing these guidelines, which are consistent with the Association’s long-standing support for humanitarian licensing. The AUTM Board of Directors endorses these COVID-19 Licensing Guidelines, and invites your institution to do the same.

  1. Technology transfer accelerates innovations that impact society and promotes the broad distribution of public health solutions. We encourage intellectual property (IP) owners to adopt a COVID-19 licensing strategy that facilitates rapid pandemic response by licensees and to make the execution of associated transactions a top priority.
  2. For most technologies, where legally possible, this strategy is best accomplished by adopting time-limited, non-exclusive royalty-free licenses, in exchange for the licensees’ commitment to rapidly make and broadly distribute products and services to prevent, diagnose, treat and contain COVID-19 and protect healthcare workers during the pandemic (as defined by the World Health Organization).
  3. Licenses may subsequently convert to a more typical commercial license as appropriate. Licenses must also preserve the licensor’s freedom to publish and use the intellectual property for teaching and research.
AUTM has long supported expediting research from academic and government labs around the world to the public for the good of society, as exemplified in the 2007 Nine Points to Consider in Licensing University Technology framework. Now more than ever it is important for technology transfer offices to reinforce these principles.

Sign on to AUTM’s COVID-19 Licensing Guidelines
Signatories

Alexandria University
Association of American Universities (AAU)
Association of Public & Land-grant Universities (APLU)
Auburn University
Binghamton University
BioVentures/University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
Brandeis University
Caltech
Children's National Medical Center
Chitkara University
Cleveland State University
Colorado School of Mines
Colorado State University
Cornell University
Council on Governmental Relations (COGR) 
Duke Licensing & Ventures
Georgetown University
Hackensack Meridian Health
Harvard University
Indiana University
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
Johns Hopkins University
King Abdullah University of Science & Technology
LeaderGeneral, Inc.
Lehigh University
Louisiana State University
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Technology Licensing Office
McGill University
McMaster University
Michigan State University
Michigan Technological University
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
National University of Singapore
Northeastern University
Northern Illinois University
Northwestern University
Old Dominion University
Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU)
Oregon State University
Portland State University
Princeton University
Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust
Rowan University
Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Southern Illinois University System
Stanford University
Stevens Institute of Technology
Stony Brook University
SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University
SUNY Polytechnic Institute
SUNY Upstate Medical University
3PoundFlax, LLC
University at Albany - SUNY
The University of Arizona, Tech Launch Arizona
University of Arkansas, Technology Ventures
University of Bristol
The University of British Columbia
University at Buffalo - SUNY
UCLA Technology Development Group
University of California, Berkeley
University of California San Diego
The University of Chicago
University of Colorado Boulder
University of Delaware
University of Houston
The University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Kentucky
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
University of Maryland, College Park
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota
University of Mississippi
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NUtech Ventures
University of Nevada Reno
The University of New Hampshire
University of Oregon
University of South Alabama
University of Southern California
University of Texas at San Antonio
University of Utah
University of Vermont and State Agricultural College
University of Virginia Licensing & Ventures Group
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee Research Foundation
Utah State University
Vanderbilt University
Versiti | Blood Research Institute
Virginia Commonweath University, VCU Innovation Gateway
Wayne State University
Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF)
WiSys Technology Foundation
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Yale University