Confirm Your Institution’s Willingness to Use the Model IIA
The AUTM Model Inter-Institutional Agreement (Model IIA) was developed by AUTM members from a broad group of research institutions to create a common starting point for IIA negotiations. We invite all tech transfer offices to consider confirming their willingness to use the Model IIA as a template starting point.
View Sample Agreements
Why use the Model IIA?
- Reflects expertise and consensus from a diverse group of research institutions on best practices for managing jointly owned patent rights.
- Provides a generally accepted starting place, which can be customized for specific circumstances.
- Minimizes transaction costs and eliminates repeated legal reviews by providing standard terms within a customizable template, complete with annotation on common issues and options.
- Simplifies administration of jointly owned rights through community-developed standard practices.
What does it mean to “confirm willingness to use?
- A research institution simply expresses its willingness to use the template as starting point when requested by another institution.
- Adding your name to the list of participating institutions makes initiating agreements easier and more efficient for co-owning institutions.
I’m convinced! Where do we sign-up?
Background on Model Inter-Institutional Agreement (Model IIA)
The Model Inter-Institutional Agreement (Model IIA) was developed by a broad group of research institutions to create a template as a common starting point for IIA negotiations. The initial Model IIA was endorsed by 19 research institutions in 2013. The project working group reconvened in 2015 to revise the Model IIA and solicit additional users and more than 40 institutions have now participated in the process. The project is an open effort and we hope your institution will consider participating. Model IIA was developed to create a template as a common starting point for IIA negotiations in circumstances where two or more patent co-owners do not otherwise have a history of jointly managing patents together or an agreed starting point. It is intended to supplement, not replace, the existing body of IIA templates, although some institutions may choose to use it as their standard template agreement.
Model Preliminary Patent Management Agreement (Model PPMA)
In the course of developing the Model IIA, the participating institutions identified a need for a streamlined process to reach agreement on the sharing of patent costs to enable the parties to proceed with patent prosecution even before the full IIA is signed. The Model Preliminary Patent Management Agreement (Model PPMA) was developed for this reason. It creates a binding obligation to share patent costs but does not give either party the right to enter into a license while the PPMA is in effect. In the spirit of keeping the process simple, either party may terminate the PPMA on 90 days’ notice and the non-lead is not required to pay for any particular patent expenses that it objects to on a timely basis.