Masters research project - Who owns the IP - me and/or uni?

Jamp

I'm about to finish my MSc (50% taught, 50% research) and my research project has turned out rather well. The field is engineering. My supervisor has suggested making contact with players in the industry to see if they are interested. Potentially my idea has potential to really change the industry, there's more work to do before I could say for sure but I'm confident. Sorry to blow my own trumpet but I'm very proud of my work and proving the sceptics wrong.

My question is who owns the intellectual property on this work or how is ownership split? The Masters was self-funded so I have paid the university my dues. The uni have really messed me around in numerous ways so I am loathed to have them gain from my work. When my supervisor mentioned contacting people in the industry, he said the department already have a relationship with one company who he would show my work to when they next visit. Should I let him? I will be working abroad from January so won't be around to oversee.

If anyone could give me an idea of where I stand or point me in the direction of a site which will tell me, I would be grateful. Quick searching has only shown up Law Masters courses specialising in IP!

I haven't much time to search as I'm handing my thesis in this week (or not, if they're going to 'steal' my work)!

Cheers,

Jamp

melancholly

in general, the university owns everything.......... that's the general gist i've been given from an IP course I went on when i did my masters. what uni are you at? they may have their own rules, or at least someone you can contact to find out where you stand.

i'd be very careful about letting anyone else show your work (this depends on how involved your supervisor was and what your relationship with them is like). as a student, you can get trampled on very easily so watch what happens very closely. is it the kind of thing you could apply for a patent on, thereby protecting yourself to a degree?

melancholly

did a google search - here's some of the guidelines from a few unis:
http://www.bath.ac.uk/ordinances/#intelprop
http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/statutes/790-121.shtml#_Toc28143157
http://www.bris.ac.uk/secretary/studentrulesregs/intelprop.html
http://www.gla.ac.uk/copyright/studentip.htm

from the last link (glasgow) it looks like there may be different rules for taught versus research students there, so well worth finding out exactly where your uni stands on the issue.

Jamp

Thanks for the quick and helpful reply. Doesn't sounds too promising...

I am at Sheffield. I am not a big fan of my supervisor; the first time he mentioned the close relationship the dept has with this company (who could have helped immensely if involved from the off) was only mentioned to me today. That is typical of his apathy about my project, I think he simply did not believe it would work so didn't deem it worthy of much of his time.

I don't think the idea is patentable as obviously my supervisor and numerous technicians in the dept already know about it. The idea also relies on a special design of something that was invented some time ago, but I'm doing something new with it that I don't believe anyone else has thought of. I'm not aware of the design being patented itself, it was developed at a university in the far East and is not very well known.

melancholly

http://www.shef.ac.uk/ocp/ip
http://www.shef.ac.uk/researchservices/ip.html

you could speak to someone who works in IP - the university will want to protect themselves in any dealings with outside companies, which could also protect you against your supervisor.

"As such care should be taken not to inadvertently disclose key elements of that output to third parties unless the intellectual output has been protected by a Confidential Disclosure Agreement, a patent or similar protection. If in doubt you should seek advice from the appropriate central support office. In the majority of instances this will be via a Research Development Manager in the Research Office."

maybe you could look into a confidential disclosure agreement and demand that one gets signed before talking to any companies? best thing is to speak to an expert... and i'm definitely not one of them!

Jamp

Thanks once again. The links seem to refer to academics' research rather than students so I've emailed Research Services to enquire about the policy for students. My course if officially PG Taught so here's hoping Shef's policy will be similar to Glasgow's.

melancholly

well good luck and let us know how you get on!

misskool

Hi Jamp,
Most universities have a special section to deal with patents (they also want to create spin-off companies).

also, this may seem a bit OTT but maybe you could speak to a patent lawyer about your work in confidence and see what they say about it.

[Deleted User]

As the last person said, many uni's now have 'incubator' projects to start new businesses. They will usually have someone with good knowledge of IP law. I'm sure when I did my MSc I had to sign a form waiving my IP rights to the uni.

LeanneF

Jamp wrote:

I don't think the idea is patentable as obviously my supervisor and numerous technicians in the dept already know about it. The idea also relies on a special design of something that was invented some time ago, but I'm doing something new with it that I don't believe anyone else has thought of.

As long as no one else has patented it it should still be patentable. New ways of using existing patented things are also patentable.

However, the cost of applying for and perhaps more importantly defending a patent is extremely expensive...easily running into thousands of pounds. The paperwork also needs to be completed swiftly to prevent you being scooped. Also, the paperwork will only be valid for the UK (maybe Europe), so you'll need to apply separately for US, far East if necessary & in the meantime anybody could steal the idea.

Depending on your financial circumstances and of course IP ownership, it might be impossible to move forward without the backing of Sheffield anyhow.

Leanne

hostie

I think the British Library at King's Cross, London have specialists that could help you. You could try phoning them. I have no experience of this at all but my hunch is that you should also try to keep onside because if you went with this on your own then you might find it difficult to get the right people to consider it.
Good luck!