Under Review: Systemwide Policy on Inventions, Patents, and Innovation Transfer

TO:  COVCR-L, CGDirectors-L, IPDirectors-L, Clinical Trial Directors, Industry Contracts Directors, 
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Dear Colleagues:

Enclosed for your review are proposed revisions to the Presidential Policy on Inventions, Patents, and Innovation Transfer.

In December 2019, the Board of Regents formed the Regents Working Group on Innovation Transfer and Entrepreneurship to understand how the University could better promote innovation transfer and entrepreneurship and take advantage of campus-based opportunities. In May 2021, the Regents Working Group on Innovation Transfer and Entrepreneurship published a report recommending updating policies, including the existing UC Patent Policy, to reflect current business needs. The report states that the responsibility, authority, and accountability for innovation transfer and entrepreneurship shall reside generally with the campuses. In conjunction with the report, the Board of Regents issued Regents Policy 5105: Innovation Transfer & Entrepreneurship, further recommending that UCOP modernize its policies governing innovation transfer and entrepreneurship.

 In response, the Research Policy Analysis and Coordination (RPAC) unit assembled a Patent Policy Review Group to review and revise the existing UC Patent Policy. The group focused on shifting UCOP’s authority over intellectual property to campuses, removing outdated procedural details, and expanding the policy’s scope to many types of intellectual property that are important to innovation transfer. The revised version of the Patent Policy explicitly gives campuses authority over innovation transfer and intellectual property related decisions and expands the scope of the policy to address unpatentable innovations of interest to extramural sponsors and licensees. It also renames the policy to the Policy on Inventions, Patents, and Innovation Transfer to reflect the expanded scope.

 RPAC would appreciate receiving your comments no later than May 31, 2023. Please submit your comments to RPAC@ucop.edu with the subject line "Inventions, Patents, and Innovation Transfer Policy Comments.” If you have any questions, please contact me at Felice.Lu@ucop.edu or (510) 987-0348.

Sincerely,

Felice Lu
Research Policy Analysis and Coordination
Research and Innovation
University of California, Office of the President
1111 Franklin St, 11th floor
Oakland CA, 94607-5200
Phone: (510) 987-0348
https://www.ucop.edu/research-policy-analysis-coordination/