Types of Licensing and Commercialization Agreements

License agreements grant third parties rights under Rush University patents or copyrights. University license agreements typically stipulate that the licensee should diligently seek to bring the intellectual property into commercial use for the public good, provide a reasonable return for Rush and specify limitations to Rush’s liability. 

Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), also referred to as confidential disclosure agreements (CDAs), are often used to protect the confidentiality of an invention during evaluation by potential licensees. NDAs also protect third-party proprietary information that University researchers need to review in order to conduct research or to evaluate research opportunities. Rush ITT enters into NDAs for University proprietary information shared with someone outside of Rush. The Clinical Research Administration manages incoming NDAs related to research contracts.  

Material transfer agreements (MTAs) or data-use agreements (DUA) are used for incoming and outgoing materials at Rush and are administered by the Office of Legal Affairs. These agreements describe the terms under which University researchers and outside researchers may share materials, typically for research or evaluation purposes. Intellectual property rights can be endangered if materials are used without a proper MTA. 

Inter-institutional agreements (IIAs) describe the terms under which two or more institutions (generally universities) will collaborate to assess, protect, market, license and share in the revenues received from licensing jointly owned intellectual property. IIAs are administered by RUSH ITT.