UW Research
Policies, Procedures and Guidance

Checklist: Background Intellectual Property

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Identifying UW Background Intellectual Property (Background IP) early allows the UW to ensure the appropriate protections, permissions, and compliance are in place. This checklist can help you determine whether Background Intellectual Property (IP) will be used in your project.

Review What is Background Intellectual Property? 

How to Use This Checklist

Review this checklist during project planning or when preparing an eGC1. If any item applies, your project likely involves Background IP and you will need to select the checkbox for UW Background IP on question D-1 of the eGC1.

Background IP Checklist

Patents / Patent Applications

  • Does the UW hold any issued patents or pending patent applications relevant to this project?
    • Are you an inventor on the patent/patent application?
  • Will the project rely on or build upon any existing patents or patent applications?
  • Does this project make use of any technologies you have disclosed to CoMotion?

UW Created Methods or Software

  • Are there unpublished methods, protocols, or techniques needed for the work (potential UW inventions)?
  • Will you use software, algorithms, code, or computational models created in your lab and not developed under this project?

Proprietary Materials

  • Will the project rely on any proprietary materials developed at the UW or transferred to the UW? For example:
    • Engineered cell lines or other novel biological materials
    • Novel plasmids, viral vectors, DNA constructs, or other genetic materials
    • Novel antibodies, proteins, enzymes, or other reagents
    • Proprietary model organisms (e.g., microbes, transgenic animals)
    • Materials acquired under Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs), Data Use Agreements (DUAs), licenses, or other restrictions

Proprietary Data, Datasets, or Databases

  • Will the project rely on any of your pre-existing datasets, databases, analytical outputs, or unpublished research data?

Other Intellectual Property or Restricted Materials

  • Will your project rely on any pre-existing software tools, custom instrumentation, hardware designs, or documentation developed at UW?

Resources

Questions?

Contact your Innovation Manager or Meredith Reynolds at mlnr@uw.edu.