1. Intellectual Property Rights and Confidentiality
Dr Richy Hetherington

2. Universities are expected to seek opportunities to exploit for social or economic benefit research funded in whole or in part from public funds.
Urine flow meter men can use at home for more accurate readings
Food with alginates that can counter fat absorption and counter obesity
New antibiotics or new more effective cancer treatments
Or computer games to help assess childrens eyesight for early diagnosis of potential problems
In order to take project forward the ideas must be protected so they can get the investment needed to be exploited.

3. Protection of Intellectual Property
Patent
Trade Mark
Design Rights
Copyright
Non-Disclosure
There are several ways to protect Intellectual property.
The two key ones for us are Patents and Non-disclosure and they are linked.
A patent is an agreement with the Governments that exchanges information on how a new idea or invention works for 20 years exclusivity on the use of that idea or invention
The patent can only be granted if the idea or invention is novel – if anyone can show the idea has been done before (prior art) then a patent can’t be granted.
So it is vital that any research that could lead to a patent is kept out of the public domain.
Once ideas are out there companies use Trade Marks and Design Rights to protect their brands to retain customer loyalty.
Copyright protects the words or a performance and is an automatic right on anything that is produced.

4. Relevance to you Keep Secret any information about your research
Supervisor consent prior to
Publication including conference presentation
Be aware you could be requested to assign IPR to the University – and benefit as if you are a member of staff
Any member of staff is bound by their contract of employment to keep confidential any proprietary information and they will be offered a share of the proceeds of any invention they are part of.
As a postgraduate student you have not entered into any such agreement. Until you sign this confidentiality agreement that is an appendix to your Learning Agreement.

5. Ideas that don’t relate to your research
If you have an idea that you think has commercial potential, or could be used to benefit society. The Careers service have a team who can help you. If you aren’t sure whether your idea related directly to your research ask your Supervisor what they think and if there is any doubt as the Business Development Manager for your institute.

6. Questions http://www.ncl.ac.uk/res/about/office/enterprise/fms
Enterprise team, Faculty of Medical Sciences
Ground floor, Leech building