Intellectual Property

All University personnel (including faculty, staff, persons holding any form of research appointment, visiting professors and scientists, undergraduate and graduate students, graduate assistants, teaching assistants and post-doctoral fellows) and all other persons with inventions that result in whole or in part from the use of University facilities or resources are subject to the Rutgers University Patent Policy (Policy 50.3.19).

Pursuant to this policy, all such inventions must be disclosed and assigned to the University. The federal Bayh-Dole Act allows universities to be the owners of intellectual property created through federally funded research (e.g., NIH, NSF, and NCI). The University Patent Policies pertaining to legacy UMDNJ personnel are Policy 50.3.15 and 50.3.16. These Policies describe the requirements regarding the disclosure and assignment of rights to the University, the return of rights to the inventor under certain circumstances, and the distribution of income resulting from the licensing, sale or assignment of inventions discovered by University personnel.

You should contact Rutgers’ Office for Research by completing and submitting a Notice of Invention Form.

Invention disclosure review, patent application filing and prosecution, patent licensing, and non-disclosure agreements related to patents and licensing are handled by Rutgers' Office for Research.

Rutgers retains ownership of patent rights resulting from sponsored research in most instances. Sponsored research projects with public and private not for profit sponsors are handled by Rutgers' Office for Research (OfR). OfR assists faculty and departmental staff in navigating through the proposal submission and award set up process.

Additionally, sponsored research projects with industrial sponsors are handled by OfR. They also handle non-disclosure agreements related to research matters, material transfer agreements, and clinical trial agreements.

Rutgers researchers may be accused of patent infringement and Rutgers could potentially have liability for such infringement. If you are accused of infringement, you must immediately contact the OGC.

If you are contacted by a company seeking a license to use the Rutgers University Trademarks (e.g., "Scarlet Knights"), please contact the University Communications and Marketing's Licensing Office.

If you have created potentially copyrightable content (in your Rutgers’ capacity), such as text, video, images, media or software, you should contact Rutgers’ OfR by completing and submitting a Notice of Authorship Form or a Notice of Software Form.

The University has a comprehensive guide to copyright for faculty, students and staff. This resource provides links to all the relevant University policies and has extensive information about the use of copyright materials and the rights of copyrights holders.

You should call OGC regarding copyright matters such as:

• If you have a question as to whether the copyright to a particular work belongs to the University or not
• If you receive notice from a third party that you or the University is infringing on that party’s copyright
• If you believe that a work to which the University owns the copyright is being infringed

While OGC can help advise you regarding Rutgers-owned works or use of third party works in connection with Rutgers activities, it cannot provide advice regarding works to which you own copyright. If you need legal advice regarding personal copyright matters, please contact us or browse our resource section.