As a status of OTT-managed technologies: OTT activity to commercialize the technology is suspended, but not formally terminated. This status can arise when a technology disclosure presents no active opportunities for management or licensing, is background to another currently active case, or includes tangible research properties still in use at the University. In these cases, on-going work or future new developments that could enhance the technology's commercial potential are possible.
ABOR
Arizona Board of Regents, the governing body for the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and Northern Arizona University
Active
As a status of OTT-managed technologies: The technology has not been licensed, but the case is progressing normally through the stages of evaluation or further development, marketing, IP protection, or license negotiation.
ADCRC Managed
As a status of OTT-managed technologies: The technology is being managed by the Arizona Disease Control Research Commission in accordance with the terms of their research sponsorship agreements. ADCRC may elect to lead the technology transfer when it funds more than 50% of the research directly leading to an invention disclosure.
Administratively Incomplete
As a status of OTT-managed technologies: The invention or copyright disclosure is missing one or more required elements, such as a signature of an innovator, specification of the source of funding for the research that led to the innovation, or date of a past publication listed in the disclosure.
AZCI
Arizona Center for Innovation, a University of Arizona-related incubator facility located south of campus
Bailment Agreement
A legal arrangement under which one party holds, but does not acquire ownership of, property owned by another. OTT uses this status when a sample of some tangible research material, such as a novel chemical reagent or a specialized biological cell line, is relocated to the facilities of another party under a fee-bearing contract that specifies permissible uses of the material and asserts that ownership of the material continues to rest with UA.
Bayh-Dole Act
A chapter within the U.S. Patent Act that specifies rights and duties of non-profit organizations that elect to patent inventions made with federal support
BMTA, Biological Material Transfer Agreement
A form of contract that establishes rights and duties of two parties exchanging proprietary biological material, such as a patented gene or strain of organism
CDA, Confidential Disclosure Agreement
A form of contract that establishes rights and duties of two parties exchanging confidential information
Closed
As a status of OTT-managed technologies: OTT has completed action with respect to the specified technology and formally closed the case. OTT might do this when IP rights, or the possibility of rights, terminate, such as with the expiration of a patent or the discovery of dominant prior art; when developers leave the university; or when there are no license options or licenses outstanding and the case is no longer viable.
Copyright
A copyright is a limited-term monopoly granted by federal statute to the authors of original artistic and creative works, such as writings, paintings, written or recorded music, etc. The monopoly applies only to the author's original expression, not to the ideas or concepts embodied in the expression.
Copyright License
A contract under which the owner of copyright in a work of authorship has agreed not to sue the licensing party for using one or more of the owner's rights under copyright, such as reproducing, modifying, or publicly performing the work. As a status of OTT-managed technologies: OTT has executed such a contract with another party to promote commercial or other development of the work based primarily upon ABOR's copyrights. This license might be exclusive (granted to a single party for a wide scope of commercial uses) or non-exclusive (granted to several parties who might compete to simultaneously deliver the work to the market).
Donated
As a status of OTT-managed technologies: The technology has been donated to UA, with the understanding that the University will use the technology for its research and education purposes, or license the technology to a third party for commercial purposes, or both.
Enabling Disclosure
(1) A term used by the Arizona Board of Regents to designate a document that must accompany a request by a UA faculty member to license his or her own innovation in order to start a private company
(2) Any document that reveals enough information about an invention to permit others in the field to make and use the invention without undue experimentation
Exclusive License
A contract under which UA grants to a single other party permission to use the specified UA intellectual property. More accurately, a license is an agreement that UA will not sue the licensing party for using UA-owned intellectual property, and an exclusive license indicates that UA has made, and will make, such an agreement with only one party.
Inter-Institutional Agreement
An agreement between UA and another organization, usually another research organization such as a university, medical center, or federal laboratory, concerning the management of intellectual property rights owned by one or more of the parties. These agreements allow one of the parties to aggregate a bundle of rights in order to license those rights to third parties, such as commercial entities. Among other issues, an IIA typically specifies how intellectual property will be managed, by which party, and with what sharing of costs and benefits.
Internal Evaluation
As a status of OTT-managed technologies: A technology has been made available to another party that wishes to perform internal evaluations of the technology prior to deciding whether or not to request an option or license for commercial development.
Intellectual Property
Intellectual property, or IP, is property of an intangible nature: it is created by statute (usually federal), and consists of a bundle of specific legal rights provided by those statutes. An intellectual property, such as a patent or copyright, is distinct from the invention that is patented or the book that is copyrighted.
License
A legal document granting the recipient (licensee) permission to do something, or agreeing not to bring suit if the licensee does something. For example, a patent license is an agreement not to bring suit against the licensee for infringing the patent.
Licensed
As a status of OTT-managed technologies: UA has entered into a contract under which it agrees not to sue the licensing party for using UA-owned intellectual property. This is the typical status for technologies that have moved from the UA laboratory, through OTT, to commercial development.
MTA, Material Transfer Agreement
A form of contract that establishes rights and duties of two parties exchanging proprietary tangible material, such as a sample of an optical material, a chemical compound, or device prototype. For the specific case of biological material, see BMTA.
NDA, Nondisclosure Agreement
An alternate name for a CDA, or Confidential Disclosure Agreement, with the emphasis placed on the recipient's duty not to disclose the information
Nonexclusive License
A contract under which UA agrees not to bring suit against the licensing party for using the UA technology, while reserving a right to grant similar licenses to additional parties.
Non-Owned
As a status of OTT-managed technologies: UA has asserted that it makes, and will make, no claim to intellectual property rights in the specified technology. Part of OTT's responsibility is to determine, based on governing policies, if ABOR has ownership of intellectual property developed by UA employees. This would be an appropriate status for inventions that do not fall within those described under ABOR policy on intellectual property, such as inventions developed under and in accordance with approved outside activities.
Option
A contract granting one party a right to execute a specific transaction with a second party at some later date. An example would be an option to take a license to a particular patent at any time within six months of the option grant.
Optioned
As a status of OTT-managed technologies: OTT has executed a contract that gives another party a right, but not a duty, to negotiate a commercial license to the technology, usually within some specified time period after execution of the option.
ORCA
The Office of Research and Contract Analysis at the University of Arizona
OTT
The Office of Technology Transfer at the University of Arizona
Patent
A patent is a limited-term monopoly granted by federal statute to inventors of new, useful and non-obvious inventions, which might include a process, machine, manufactured item, or composition of matter, all of which are defined very broadly by the courts. Patents can also protect any new, useful and non-obvious improvement on an existing invention. Patents are not issued on ideas, or on unmodified discoveries of naturally occurring phenomena.
Patent Abandoned
As a status of OTT-managed technologies: OTT has ceased to maintain a previously issued patent, or has ceased to prosecute a previously filed patent application.
Patent Expired
As a status of OTT-managed technologies: A patent issued on the specified technology has reached the end of its statutory lifetime, which is currently 20 years from the date of the patent application.
Patent Filed
As a status of OTT-managed technologies: OTT, directly or through an agent, has filed an application requesting that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, or a foreign counterpart of that office, grant patent protection to the specified invention.
Patent Issued
As a status of OTT-managed technologies: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, or a foreign counterpart of that office, has formally granted patent protection to the specified invention.
Proprietary Technical Information
Recently gathered technical information that by its nature, or by the choice of the UA researchers who create it, is managed as a University asset, for a limited period, before it is published. Examples would be the in situ location of a newly discovered gene or natural function of a previously known gene, the crystal structure or new synthesis path of a known chemical compound, and new high-resolution maps of the local gravitational field strength over a region of the earth's surface.
PPA, Provisional Patent Application
A form of filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that time stamps the receive material, but does not otherwise process it. A PPA is not examined at the USPTO, and expires automatically one year after filing. A PPA carries few rights, but can be used as evidence that the filing party was in possession of the invention at the time the PPA was filed. One common use of a PPA is to establish a priority date, so that publications made after the PPA filing do not jeopardize foreign patent applications. A PPA may be converted to a regular (utility) patent application within one year of the PPA filing and, in that case, the utility application may claim a priority date of the PPA time stamp.
PPA Expired
As a status of OTT-managed technologies: The Provisional Patent Application (PPA) on the specified invention has reached the end of its statutory lifetime, which is currently one year from the date of the PPA filing.
PPA Filed
As a status of OTT-managed technologies: A Provisional Patent Application (PPA) has been filed within the past 360 days with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. A PPA is not examined at the USPTO, and expires automatically one year after filing. A PPA carries few rights, but can be used as evidence that the filing party was in possession of the invention at the time the PPA was filed. One common use of a PPA is to establish a priority date, so that publications made after the PPA filing do not jeopardize foreign patent applications.
RCT Managed
As a status of OTT-managed technologies: The specified technology is being managed by Research Corporation Technologies, an intellectual property management and investment organization based in Tucson, Arizona.
Released
As a status of OTT-managed technologies: UA has released the intellectual property rights, if any, associated with this technology to the individuals who developed it and disclosed it to OTT. A release is done under a letter which specifies residual obligations to the University, including a stipulation by ABOR that no further work related to the intellectual property rights may be done at the University or with any other agency of the State of Arizona.
Tangible Research Property
Tangible materials that are used or produced in the course of University research projects. Tangible Research Property includes biological materials and living organisms, chemical substances, prototype instrumentation or devices, and research records and documentation, regardless of form or media used to capture or create those records. Use of the label Tangible Research Property usually suggests that the material in question is being managed through access rights rather than through intellectual property rights associated with patents or copyrights.
UBMTA, Uniform Biological Material Transfer Agreement
A standardized form of Material Transfer Agreement subscribed to by many U.S. universities. The UBMATA is implemented in two parts: a multi-page Master Agreement that details the terms of the agreement, is uniform for all participating parties, and is executed once per institution; and a brief Implementing Letter that is executed for each instance of an exchange of material between participating parties.
Waived to Government
As a status of OTT-managed technologies: UA has declined to assert its right to IP ownership of a specified technology created in whole or part with federal funds. (Federal law permits, but does not require, the University to elect ownership of inventions made with federal funding.) When the University does not elect ownership, it is required by law and contract to offer any rights it may have, or could have had, to the federal agency that sponsored the work.
Work for Hire
A work of authorship made under a written agreement that establishes the party commissioning the work as the author, and hence the initial owner, of the copyright in the work.
Work of Authorship
A creative work in any medium, such as any writing in words or symbols, musical composition, sound recording, sculpture, or painting
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