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Intellectual Property StatementStatement on Expectations Regarding Protection of Intellectual PropertyOverview. This statement sets forth The McKnight Foundation's expectations regarding protection of intellectual property (IP) resulting from work it funds through the Collaborative Crop Research Program (CCRP). We expect each grantee and its partners to subscribe to this policy and to develop a management plan based on the implementation principles listed below. IP management plans will be reviewed by the Foundation, and release of year two funds will be contingent upon the Foundation's approval of the plan.
IP and How it is Protected. Intellectual Property is a term that collectively includes all the products of creativity, invention, and know-how (intellectual property) as well as biological materials and devices. Means of formally protecting such property that results in the creation of intellectual property rights (IPR) can include patents, trade secrets, and copyright. 1 Access to protected IP often involves the use of various agreements, such as IPR License or Royalty Agreements to control their distribution. IP assets such as cell lines, plant varieties, or monoclonal antibodies often are not protected formally and their dissemination can be controlled by material transfer agreements, signed by both the providing and receiving parties. 2In addition, biological materials are often subject to international and national legislation governing the ownership of biodiversity assets.
Values Underlying the Collaborative Crop Research Program. The Foundation's mission is "to improve the quality of life for present and future generations and to seek paths to a more humane and secure world." Values specific to the CCRP include:
- Encouraging and supporting the free flow of advanced scientific knowledge and research materials, primarily in the form of public goods.
- Empowering resource-poor people in less developed countries to make their own decisions regarding food security that are appropriate to their circumstances.
- Building and sustaining a strong public agricultural sector in developing countries.
- Valuing, conserving and utilizing genetic resources, while upholding national and international biodiversity regulations.
McKnight Policy on Protection of IP. The McKnight Foundation's Collaborative Crop Research Program seeks to contribute to the security of food production and human nutrition in the developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America through sustained support of research and training that is closely and strategically linked to issues of food crop production in those countries. The Foundation requires that knowledge and materials resulting from the research and training that it funds be used for the maximum public benefit of resource-poor people in less developed countries. Results of research supported by the Foundation should contribute, through a series of collaborative projects and transfers of technology, to the production of improved seed and other material and know-how used by farmers. Participants in the program must commit to facilitating the sharing and transfer of technology and research products for both research and commercial use benefiting resource-poor people in developing countries. McKnight Foundation Grantees should also use IP that belongs to others, in a responsible manner 3 that respects the rights of the IP owners.
Implementation of This Policy. Through implementation of this policy, we expect grantees to increase their capacity to understand the various approaches to, advantages of, and limitations surrounding legal protection of intellectual property in the context of their research, institution and country.
Each partnership shall propose a plan for management of intellectual property that best fits its situation and the policies of the partner institutions. In doing so, projects shall ensure that ownership of all intellectual property rights (IPR) arising directly or indirectly from the project is equitably allocated. Equitable allocation considers:
- the intellectual contribution of each partner in the collaboration to the ongoing project (foreground IP);
- the contribution of intellectual property, materials, research effort, and preparatory
work of each partner brought to the project (background IP);
- the facilities provided by each partner;
- to a lesser degree, the financial contribution of each partner; and
- other considerations determined by the partners to be relevant.
Grantees should be guided by the following principles in developing their plan for protection of intellectual property:
Ownership. The McKnight Foundation does not hold or claim ownership rights over intellectual property or intellectual property rights resulting from research it funds. The Foundation instead requires that investigators and research institutions it supports protect their McKnight-funded IP only if protection is needed to ensure that this IP will be available for their own future research and for public-sector benefit. All IP arising from McKnight-funded projects should be clearly identified and inventoried to assure that ownership is clearly documented.
We require that valid and enforceable mechanisms be in place to ensure that inventions, improved germplasm, know-how, and materials developed with funding from the McKnight Foundation be protected from any limitations on their use to advance the causes of food security and the improvement of the lives of poor people around the world.
In some cases, the interest of food security and the improvement of the lives of the poor can best be advanced by placing the results of work supported by the Foundation rapidly in the public domain, such as through scientific publication. In such cases, appropriate publication effectively prevents others from patenting the same or similar inventions.
In other cases, the public interest will be advanced by applying for statutory protection, such as patents owned by or assigned to public institutions. In these cases, we require that mechanisms be adopted so that inventors will disclose, license, or assign ownership of their rights to their invention to their public-sector employer, or, where appropriate, to another institution whose mandate for a transfer of rights is to benefit resource-poor people in the developing countries. When rights are allocated in this way, employment agreements or other forms of commitment should be in place between the investigators and the research institutions, ensuring that any IP generated through work funded by the Foundation will be appropriately managed according to the IP Plan developed by the project partners.
All patents or other forms of claiming formal ownership of the results of McKnight-funded research shall be managed by the owner in a manner that ensures a reasonable time of royalty-free access for public (non-commercial) entities operating in developing countries, and/or shall give McKnight royalty-free license with the ability to sub-license for humanitarian purposes. The Foundation also requires that institutions be willing to license or assign rights to an appropriate international public agricultural research system ITP portfolio, should one be developed, to facilitate use of research results to help food insecure subsistence farmers in developing countries.
Use of Materials for Public Benefit. Within the context of existing institutional IP policies, project partners shall take all reasonable steps to:
- provide reasonable and ready access by public-sector beneficiaries to property, materials and processes;
- avoid unreasonable commercial exploitation of such material and processes for purposes that diminish growth of public-sector agriculture in developing countries; and
- avoid encumbering materials and processes in statutory protection such that they cannot be used for public benefit.
Respect for Biodiversity Regulations. The exchange of genetic materials is governed by national and international legislation. Grantees must be informed about, and fully respect, all relevant regulations, laws and procedures (both national and international). Regulated genetic materials may include wild relatives of crops, land races, varieties, and breeding lines; other organisms; and derived genetic material such as DNA and DNA sequence information.
Publication. We strongly encourage public disclosure of results from McKnight-funded research through publications in the scientific literature, in print and/or electronic form. We prohibit maintaining such results as trade secrets. We encourage timely publication of research results, but recognize the prerogative of scientists to retain control of their data prior to publication.
Costs. The project budget shall make allowance for costs relating to registration and maintenance of intellectual property and to manage licensing of protected property. The Foundation will not make available additional funds for this purpose.
Partnership. In developing plans for protection of intellectual property, partnerships should bear in mind the collaborative nature of the McKnight program and their work and all partners are encouraged to take reasonable steps to meet the needs and comply with the regulations of all project partner institutions.
1 Statutory protection regulations will vary according to national legislation. Types of IP protection mechanisms may include utility patents, innovation patents, trademarks, copyrights, database rights, and trade secrets, as well as other types of protection mechanisms. [ Return. ]2These materials sometimes are referred to as "tangible property or TP" to reflect their inherent tangible nature. [ Return. ]3IP for which ownership has been established is often referred to as "Proprietary property or technology." [ Return. ]
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