UK Defence Science And Tech Lab To Offer IP Royalty-Free Licences 11/02/2015 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) has announced it will participate in a plan for sharing some of its intellectual property for research royalty-free, making it the first United Kingdom government agency to do so. According to a press release, the lab has signed up to the Easy Access IP scheme, following groups such as European nuclear lab CERN and others (IPW, Education/R&D/Innovation, 4 June 2012). The Defence research agency is initially making six patent families available under the scheme. They are: A Protective Garment Comprising an Antenna A Helmet Comprising Air Vents A Rucksack for Connecting to Electrical Devices Blunt impact head injury model Gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase attenuated Francisella Animal training system and method The Easy Access IP programme, which originated from Glasgow University working with King’s College London and the University of Bristol, aims to make it easier to commercialise technology that may be otherwise more difficult to transfer. This might be because it is very early stage, or presents some uncertainties for a company to risk investment, the release said. Easy Access IP addresses this by “offering technologies free of upfront fees or royalties, using quick and simple agreements, to make it easy for companies to access the IP and put it to use,” it said. Dstl’s Head of IP, Graham Farnsworth, said in the release that by offering free access to some of the agency IP having a “lower technology readiness level,” its partners can evaluate and put it to use quickly. “We hope that this scheme will allow us to develop new relationships with industry and academia, and by releasing appropriate IP in this manner we hope our innovative ideas can be developed, benefitting the economy and society as a whole,” he said. Click here to find out more and submit a statement of intent for a license, and outline plan for future development and exploitation The licence is for non-exclusive, royalty-free use of the IP under various conditions. The licensee will pay for patent costs, and, in exceptional circumstances such as if a resulting invention is “providing significant financial returns,” it might be possible for Dstl to change the licence to one involving some benefits to UK taxpayers on fair and reasonable terms. The release notes that Dstl’s technology transfer company, Ploughshare Innovations Limited, “will continue to commercialise technologies through spin-outs and licensing, focussing on those of a higher complexity in nature requiring multi-party arrangements or financial investment, as well as those which are strategic for Dstl and the Ministry of Defence.” Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window) Related William New may be reached at wnew@ip-watch.ch."UK Defence Science And Tech Lab To Offer IP Royalty-Free Licences" by Intellectual Property Watch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.