The University of Maryland Intellectual Property (IP) Policy outlines the ownership, licensing, and protection of IP created by personnel and students at UMD. Occasionally, in the course of research, sponsors, particularly Foundations or other non-Federal sponsors, include terms or conditions in their award notices that do not conform to UMD’s IP Policy. In these cases, the Office of Research Administration (ORA) works with the sponsor to negotiate mutually agreeable language that is in accordance with the preferred ownership and licensing terms in the UMD IP Policy. However, in some cases this is not possible, and UMD may agree to waive certain requirements as allowed per the IP Policy. In these cases, the Principle Investigator (PI) and research team will need to decide whether to request a waiver to parts of the IP Policy in order to permit UMD to accept the award.
When negotiations on IP language come to an impasse, but the PI and research team still wish to pursue the award, ORA will initiate an IP Policy Waiver request ("IP Waiver") via the Kuali Build (KB) UMD IP Waiver form which then must be reviewed and approved by the PI, the entire research team, Chair, and Dean in KB before proceeding for review by UM Ventures and the Vice President for Research (VPR) or designee. IP Waivers should be carefully considered before acceptance and signing, particularly when there are graduate students working on the research project. Everyone expected to work on the project must sign the IP Waiver and the additional signature page form should be attached in KB by the PI at the time of routing. Any person(s) joining a project after the project starts, where an IP Waiver has been approved, is subject to the terms of the waiver. Departments are responsible for obtaining signatures for anyone who joins the project after the initial IP Waiver is processed/approved and keeping the documentation on file.
Processing IP Waivers via KB
IP Waivers for sponsored projects will be initiated by ORA in KB and routed to the PI. The PI will receive an email notification to review/approve the IP Waiver in KB. This email will also contain a PDF of the IP Waiver Form that can be provided to the other individuals working on the project in order to obtain signatures on the Additional Signature Page form. The PI must complete all the project specific questions in KB and upload the additional signature page(s) signed by others working on the project (if necessary) as an attachment. Once the PI approves the waiver in KB, it will route to the Department Chair. The Department Chair should review, and either return or approve the form. If approved, the form will route to the Dean/Director for the Department/College. After the PI, Chair, and Dean have approved in KB, the form will route for review and approval to UM Ventures and/or the VPR.
Other situations may require a waiver of the IP Policy, including agreements signed by UM Ventures, gifts requiring special disposition of IP (open source or public domain releases), and UM Disposition of Current IP. In these other situations, please contact UM Ventures for more information on processing the waiver.
Kuali Build can be accessed at: https://usmd.kualibuild.com/app/builder/home
