Creative COVID-19 Collaborations - IP Agreements That Work

McCartney & Lennon, Watson & Crick, Mary & Pierre Curie. We are all looking for synergistic collaborations. In life sciences, some of those collaborations may be with your employees, independent contractors or corporate research partners. This article will look at a few key IP issues to tie up in your COVID-19 research with others on patentable inventions. Being prepared for any outcome is important - not all the collaborations mentioned above had happy endings!

There is a particular urgency to collaborations relating to COVID-19. However, good practices must not go out the window.

It is also good to be mindful of the opportunity not only to collaboratively develop, but also to collaboratively share, IP that you develop. It is possible to fully protect IP, and then either openly make IP available or do a controlled IP license for COVID-19.