University—Industry Research Contracts

Abstract

The growth of university–industry research collaboration in the past fifteen years has been well documented. Despite long running debates concerning the ownership and finance of such collaboration, however, there have been few detailed studies of the contractual terms under which such collaboration takes place. This article, based on examination of several hundred ‘live’ contracts and associated correspondence in five UK universities, highlights several commonly used clauses which – if exposed to literal legal interpretation – could prove problematic. Although the work is necessarily based on the UK experience, it is likely that the issues raised will have much wider applicability.