Intellectual property services

Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Services, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093... 

Both prototypal questions related illustrate the need for a successhil technical service professional to have a strong understanding of the customer s apphcations and processes, within proper intellectual property considerations. This need for a thorough understanding is not always straightforward. A common example of the complications that can arise is provided from the paint (qv) industry (11). If, for instance, a calcium carbonate suppHer would like a paint manufacturer to use their material versus a competitive one, the onus is on the suppHer to show that the material can be successfully used in the paint formula of interest. However, many such formulas are held as proprietary. The technical service professional therefore does not know the components of the paint. This would lead to an unworkable situation from an evaluation standpoint save for the fact that the paint company may supply a miHbase or other intermediate form of the paint to allow a proper comparison of carbonates to be carried out. Thus mutual benefits can result and no loss of proprietary information occur. 

A patent file history, also called a file wrapper, is the complete set of documents for a patent filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. These papers chronicle communications and actions taken by the patent examiner, the applicant, and the applicant s attorney from the time of patent application to issue. File histories are available from commercial services such as Intellectual Property Network (described below). 

Any property that belongs to the customer and is under the control of the laboratory in order to perform an operation or offer a service to this customer is administered with care. Customer property can include intellectual property. Examples of customer s... 

Barriers to Imitation How is the idea protected from imitation by competitors Is it protected by intellectual property law through patent, copyright, or trademark If not, is it difficult to imitate by its nature How so Is it difficult to reverse engineer Is it protected as a trade secret Are there unique, exclusive sources of components or other supplies Are unique labor inputs required to develop, maintain, support, and extend the product or service ... 

Intellectual property, which arises as the result of work done under R D programmes, requires to be protected from exploitation by other companies. Arranging this protection requires the services of people who are professionally qualified in this... 

It is important to agree at the outset on management and controls concerning security, confidentiality, intellectual property, documentation ownership, and compliance oversight. These topics should be included in legal contracts defining the outsourcing service to be provided. 

But it s a risk, and you are exactly right. We do see the growth of foreign competition in the demand for their services, for example, the ability of Procter Gamble to establish relationships with universities and the People s Republic of China without as much concern over intellectual property rights. U.S. universities are aware of this and are so scared ofit that they cannot even talk about it. So it s an issue that is not very clearly recognized or articulated. 

Intellectual Property and Business Information Services, The Procter Gamble Co., Cincinnati,... 

Not every fine chemical producer will be able to move to custom production. It takes more than idle production capacity to enter this field. The fine chemical manufacturer must have the key technology associated with the ability to carry out a wide variety of chemical syntheses. Another key facet is the quality of service. Most suppliers recognize that these projects may have a life of 3-5 years, so they want to do a good job, in the hope of obtaining repeat business. If the project is successful, the customer may consider building a plant. Generally, customer and supplier will share intellectual property. 

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