Tech transfer offices at universities will be looking at the invention myopically as they try to figure out how to best manage it. They can’t do that effectively without knowing everything else happening at all the other research centers. There could be damage done to a body of intellectual property if it is fragmented and licensed off piece by piece, university by university. For example, who has the final say in what gets pursued and how it gets pursued? An institute’s people would have a bird’s-eye view and could be in a position to know what would complement and synergize the research being conducted at another center in another university.
To prevent fragmentation, two or more complementary inventions could be combined into a single patent application. That would require tech transfer offices at the participating universities to work together in concert to manage the joint intellectual property owned by them. Tech transfer offices have experience with these kinds of deals.
- How is it decided which tech transfer office takes the lead in managing jointly owned intellectual property?
- How will they share patent prosecution costs?
- How will they share the licensing income?