Industry: Frequently Asked Questions

There are several important terms contained in most licenses to intellectual property. While not comprehensive, below find a brief description of the terms in a typical license agreement for which a company will be responsible:

Financial:

License Fees: due upon signing, achieving milestones, annual maintenance fees and minimum royalty payments

Patent and other intellectual property related costs: past and future prosecution, maintenance and litigation costs

Royalties: on sales of product covered by licensed technology

Sublicensing royalties: on payments received by company from sublicensees

Equity: if appropriate

Non-financial:

Reserved Rights – the institution will reserve a right to use the invention for itself and other not-for-profits, for research and education purposes.

Due Diligence - the company will be required to demonstrate it is using its best efforts to develop a commercial product. Such evidence is captured by time specific product development milestones, documented research and development spending, and annual reporting.

Indemnification and Insurance – the company will assume all product liability risks that arise out of the commercial development of the product. The company will have to maintain insurance consistent with the requirements of the institutions insurance carrier.

Companies or entrepreneurs who are interested in obtaining intellectual property rights to inventions owned by Partners Healthcare or its affiliated hospitals should contact the responsible Licensing Associate who manages the technology. The Licensing Associate will be able to tell you more about the technology and its availability. S/he will determine your needs and objectives for developing the invention and ultimately, if institutional and company interests are in alignment, offer license terms for the technology. Depending on the technology, these conversations can progress quickly to license terms, or in more complicated situations may take several meetings to appropriately assess the opportunity. Additional research may be performed at Partners by the inventors or others to advance the technology in the early years of the license.

Please contact the appropriate RVL Licensing Professional to make arrangements to learn more about our available technologies and potentially exchange confidential information relating to licensing opportunities.

A listing of available technologies from the institution are provided on our Available Technologies. Since new technologies arrive in the office on a daily basis and become available due to license terminations, we recommend that companies interested in a technology contact licensing managers directly to get the most current information.

Partnerships between Partners HealthCare and industry partners have emerged as a key force in the development and commercialization of biomedical and healthcare innovations. Partners has worked with a variety of companies to create arrangements between investigators, clinicians, centers and administrators to share assets that enable a collaborative benefit.

Partners HealthCare has long been known for its innovation and leadership in the areas of research, development and clinical care. In particular, advanced programs in Personalized Medicine, Molecular Diagnostics, and Information Systems (IS) continue to generate much activity. More details can be found in our Key Corporate Initiatives page.

Partners HealthCare alliances span the spectrum of specific projects to broad, strategic alliance relationships. Transactional relationships include those based on licenses and institutional consulting. At the other end of the spectrum are collaborations in which both PHS and industry contribute significant resources to co-develop next generation solutions and services that align with key visionary strategies within PHS.