Prospectus8

Policies and Practices

Publication Policy

The QRE Center contributions are prominent in leading technical journals and conferences on quality and reliability engineering. Approval of the IAB is required before the QRE Center research results can be submitted for publication or presented orally at a public meeting. Normally, no delay will be built into the approval process. The one major exception is patentable material. In order to protect the intellectual property of the QRE Center and its sponsors, publication of some results may be delayed up to three months, pending patentability studies and the filing of patent applications.

Prior to publication or presentation at a conference, the QRE Center research results are available to sponsors in the form of research reports. These reports will be given to sponsors six months before they are available in the open literature. The technical reports, which in most cases contain more detail than the publications, will be available only to sponsors until one year after they are issued.

Patent, Copyright Software, and Intellectual Property Policy

The QRE Center’s patent policy is the standard policy of Rutgers and Arizona State University and is well suited to the goals of cooperative research with industry. The QRE Center’s inventions shall be promptly reported to Rutgers and Arizona State University, and to the sponsors. Title to inventions made in the course of research funded by the QRE Center shall normally vest in the university or its designee. The companies that are sponsors on the date of the invention disclosure will receive an option to license any patents on the invention. Participating companies electing to exercise their license option must agree to share the patent costs in exchange for a royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use such an invention for the life of the patent protection obtained and must sign the standard non-exclusive license agreement with Rutgers and Arizona State University.

Royalties from companies that license the invention will be distributed in accordance with Rutgers and Arizona State University’s Patent Policy, which is in effect on the date of disclosure.

Patent Procedures

Investigators working on projects funded by the QRE Center will make timely disclosures of inventions to the QRE Center and to Rutgers and Arizona State University. Thereafter, such disclosures will be promptly reported to the sponsors in good standing, who have signed appropriate confidentiality agreements.

The QRE Center will send a mail ballot and a non-exclusive license agreement to sponsors. Sponsors will indicate on the ballot whether or not they wish to exercise their option to the invention. The ballot and signed agreement must be returned to the QRE Center within 60 days. A ballot that has not been postmarked within the prescribed 60-day period or is returned without a signed agreement shall be considered a negative vote. Sponsors that exercise their option to license the invention must agree to share all patent costs with other sponsors that choose to exercise their option to the invention. If, at any time during the filing, prosecution, and/or maintenance of the patent, a sponsor fails to pay their proportionate share of the costs, that sponsor will irrevocably forfeit their license to the invention.

If more than one sponsor exercises its option to license the invention, each of them will receive a royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use the invention for the life of the patent protection obtained. Rutgers and Arizona State University shall always be permitted to negotiate royalty-bearing, non-exclusive licenses with non-sponsor companies.

If only one sponsor exercises its option to license the invention, that sponsor will have the choice of a royalty-free, non-exclusive license to the invention or an exclusive royalty-bearing license to the invention on terms negotiated with Rutgers and Arizona State University within ninety (90) days.

In the event that no sponsor, within the notification period, exercises its option to the invention in accordance with the foregoing procedure, and the university seeks patent or other intellectual property protection on the invention, sponsors will have no rights to the invention and any resulting intellectual property. Rutgers and Arizona State University shall be free to license the invention and related intellectual property at its own discretion. Also, no royalty income will belong to the sponsors, regardless of royalty amount.

Finally, if the other university does not elect to pursue a patent or other intellectual property protection, the rights to the invention may be assigned to the inventors in accordance with the Rutgers and Arizona State Patent Policy then in force.

In all the above cases, the QRE Center retains non-exclusive, royalty-free rights to any inventions for research purposes.

The decision on filing foreign patents will be made by the university with input from the sponsors that exercise their option to the invention and the QRE Center. Sponsors who exercise their option to license the invention will be asked to indicate whether or not they are willing to share the costs for foreign patents. If the university elects to file a foreign patent, only those sponsors that agree to share all patent costs will receive a royalty-free, non-exclusive license to any resulting foreign patents. The detailed Industrial Consortium Membership Agreement is shown in Appendix I.

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