Intellectual Property

As you continue to make progress on your grant you may find that you have discovered a concept or modified a piece of equipment that needs to be protected through a copyright, a patent, or other form of technology transfer protection. As soon as you discover this, it is imperative that you contact the Technology Transfer office at OHIO. Examples and definitions, along with guidance can be found in the Technology Transfer section of this guide.

Working Internationally
The Federal Government has issued strict regulations regarding the use and transfer of information and materials to Foreign Nationals. These export control regulations are enforced by the Department of Commerce, Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and the Department of State, International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). Export control restrictions have been in place for many years. Recent events, however, have brought these issues to the forefront.

Export control restrictions prohibit, for reasons of national security or protection of trade, the unlicensed export of specific technologies. If OHIO research involves such specified technologies, the EAR and/or ITAR may require that the university obtain prior approval from the State or Commerce departments before allowing foreign nationals to participate in research, partner with a foreign company and for sharing research – verbally or in writing – with persons who are not United States citizens or permanent resident aliens.

Export control regulations have the potential to undermine publication rights and prohibit international collaboration if the dissemination of university research is not placed in the public domain and does not qualify as fundamental research.

TIP: The Commodity Control List (CCL) and the Munitions Control List (MCL) can be found at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr .

The following definitions are useful and dictate how the export control regulations affect a specific research project.

Deemed Export - an export requiring a license and imposing access restriction

In all cases the official definition of export under the EAR and ITAR should be consulted in determining whether your technology is an export. As noted above, export is defined so as to preclude the participation of foreign national students or staff in research that involves covered technology without first obtaining a license from the appropriate government agency.

DON'T FORGET : Export is defined so as to preclude the participation of foreign national students or staff in research that involves covered technology without first obtaining a license from the appropriate government agency.

Fundamental Research – this includes basic research in science and/or engineering at an accredited institution of higher learning in the United States where the resulting information is ordinarily published and shared broadly in the scientific community. Fundamental research is distinguished from research which results in information which is restricted for proprietary reasons or pursuant to specific US Government access and dissemination controls.

University research will not be deemed to qualify as fundamental research if: 1) the University or researcher accepts any restrictions on the publication of the information resulting from the research, other than limited prepublication review by research sponsors to prevent inadvertent divulging of proprietary information provided to the researcher by the sponsor or to insure that publication will not compromise patent rights of the sponsor; or 2) the research is federally funded and specific access and dissemination controls regarding the resulting information have been accepted by university or researcher.

Public Domain - this is information that is published and that is generally accessible or available to the public in the following forms: 1) through sales at newsstands and bookstores; 2) through subscriptions which are available without restriction to any individual who desires to obtain or purchase the published information; 3) through second class mailing privileges granted by the US Government; 4) at libraries open to the public or from which the public can obtain documents; 5) through patents available at any patent office; 6) through unlimited distribution at a conference, meeting, seminar, trade show or exhibition, generally accessible to the public in the United States; 7) through public release (i.e., unlimited distribution) in any form (e.g. not necessarily in published form) after approval by the cognizant US government department or agency; and 8) through fundamental research.

Every award – grant, cooperative agreement or contract – is subject to export control regulations whether or not there is an explicit clause within the award document. Although most of the research conducted at OHIO meets the fundamental research exclusion test, it is the PI/PD responsibility to analyze the research and inform the ORSP staff of any technology that will be used that is export controlled.

DON'T FORGET : Every award – grant, cooperative agreement or contract – is subject to export control regulations whether or not there is an explicit clause within the award document.

As a PI/PD receiving research support from an industrial partner, you must be very certain that your ORSP manager reviews the agreement received from the industrial partner, as often, the partner will agree and accept export control restrictions that OHIO cannot. Due to sensitivity issues and the large number of foreign national students, do not negotiate any terms of a contract with a potential sponsor yourself. For more information on OHIO’s management plan related to export control and all pertinent forms, please visit: http://www.ohiou.edu/orsp/award/export_control.html .


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