Cleary’s Pharma Bites: Collaborations: Joint Ownership of Intellectual Property

Cleary Gottlieb’s Pharmaceutical, Biotech, and Healthcare group is pleased to present the latest installment of its “Pharma Bites” series: Collaborations: Joint Ownership of Intellectual Property.

• Issues relating to joint ownership of IP come up with surprising frequency in pharmaceutical and life sciences collaborations.
• Joint ownership of new project-specific IP arising out of the collaboration (“Project IP”) is often viewed as commercially “fair” and simple.
• In reality, joint ownership scenarios are highly complex and contain pitfalls, potentially rendering Project IP unusable, unenforceable, or valueless.
• For many collaborations, instead of imposing joint ownership, it is preferable to allocate unitary ownership to one party or the other based on their respective contributions, strategic priorities, or background IP, with appropriate cross-licenses to enable reciprocal use within agreed fields.
• If joint ownership of Project IP is the most appropriate or only viable commercial solution, sophisticated IP drafting is essential for protecting collaborators’ IP assets and enabling future commercialization.

To learn more about this topic and view the related slide deck, click here.

Cleary’s Pharma Bites series seeks to provide critical updates on a wide range of antitrust, regulatory, arbitration, and litigation issues in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology space. 

To learn more about Cleary’s Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology practice, click here.