Intellectual Property

The training resources on this site will assist you with learning how to:

  • Share data, materials, or knowledge with others outside the university by choosing the right agreement type for the relationship and working with Industry, Innovation, and Translation (IIT)
  • Publish materials with an approved open license such as those from the Creative Commons or Open Source Initiative
  • Disclose your innovations as required by research sponsors and provide the information IIT needs to assess and file patents, copyrights, or trademarks to your research
  • Manage intellectual property (inventions, works of authorship, identifiers, data, reputation) you create in both sponsored and non-sponsored research using a project rules agreement
  • Request students waive their Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) rights to publish their coursework or other materials for which they receive course credit online or in another public forum

We are available to provide personalized consultations to review your specific project, course, or context. Please email us to request a consultation.

On-Demand Trainings

Sharing Data & Materials (30 Minutes)

Coming Soon!

This training will cover everything you need to know for sharing data or materials with researchers at other institutions or others outside the university.

Learning outcomes for this training:

  • When and why you might need a data use agreement (DUA) or material transfer agreement (MTA)
  • When you may be able to use the Uniform Biological Material Transfer Agreement (UBMTA)
  • How you can request a DUA or MTA
Sharing Knowledge & Ideas (5 Minutes)

This training will cover everything you need to know for sharing knowledge and ideas with collaborators outside the university, such as researchers at other institutions or private industry partners.

Learning outcomes for this training:

  • When and why you might need a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), also known as a confidential disclosure agreement (CDA)
  • The key elements in an NDA you should consider and define in the agreement
  • How you can request an NDA

Creative Commons and Open Licensing 

(30 Minutes)

Coming Soon!

An open license grants others permission to access, reuse, and redistribute a work, and owners of that work are able to select what restrictions, if any, they want to place on that access. Users must respect the attribution requirements owners place on the work and the conditions of each license or they forfeit the right to use the work.

This training will cover what you need to know about publishing works created at the UO using approved open licenses, such as those in the Creative Commons. A brief discussion of other open licensing platforms, such as the Open Source Initiative and Traditional Knowledge Labels, is included.

Learning outcomes for this training:

  • Understand the different types of open licenses and the different types of stewardship controls that can  be placed on a work
  • Understand how to determine who the owner of a work is and be able to place a license on that work
  • How to select the most appropriate Creative Commons license depending on the goals of your project
  • How to select the most appropriate open license for software, such as the Open Source Initiative, or other works of authorship, such as Traditional Knowledge Labels
Invention Disclosures (8 Minutes)

Innovation disclosures serve as the starting point for:

  • Reporting to sponsors (federal government, foundations, and industry sponsors)
  • Preparing patent applications
  • Registering for copyrights or trademarks
  • Submitting apps to the App Store or Google Play

Innovation disclosures are frequently required as part of sponsored research and help researchers determine what rights they may have for using, changing, and sharing an innovation when the grant is completed. Sponsors often have rights to the works created from their funding.

This training will include a discussion on types of innovation disclosures (such as invention, copyright, software, materials, trademark/identifier) and when a researcher needs to submit one to Industry, Innovation, and Translation (IIT). The training also includes a tutorial on how to submit an invention disclosure using the UO Innovator Portal.

Learning outcomes for this training:

  • What an innovation disclosure is and the types of innovation disclosures
  • Why and when you may need to disclose an invention, copyrighted work, material, identifier, and sometimes data
  • How to use the UO Innovator Portal to submit a disclosure
Project Rules Agreements (6 Minutes)

Project rules agreements (PRAs) outline the scope of each project member's contributions, their rights and obligations, and the value of the project upfront. They delineate how project revenue, if any, will be shared. PRAs also define how the works created in the project will be distributed and shared. Some projects govern confidentiality in order to respect information that a sponsor is providing.

PRAs can also be used for classes in which students publish their coursework on a course website, blog, or social media. Students' coursework is considered an educational record, and students must sign a Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) release. PRAs are also useful for management of capstone projects where student work may be used by a sponsor or partner.

This training will include a discussion on what a project rules agreement is and when a faculty member or researcher may need to put one in place. The training also includes our PDF tutorials on how to digitally collect signatures on PRAs using the UO Echelon: PI platform. 

Learning outcomes for this training:

  • What a project rules agreement is
  • Why and when you may need one
  • How to define the scope of your project and request a project rules agreement
  • How to use the UO Echelon: PI to collect digital signatures on the project rules agreement
  • How to access our PDF tutorials for Echelon: PI

At-Request Trainings

Our staff is available to provide consultation on research projects, experiential learning opportunities, or courses that may need agreements. Consultations can be delivered in-person or remotely via Zoom. Please contact Senior Innovation Asset Administrator Mandy Gettler to request a consultation.