Industry Sponsored Research

The SJSU Office of Innovation is a focal point for creating industry alliances to advance SJSU research, develop new technology, and drive commercialization.

We work closely with university researchers and prospective industry partners to ensure alliances jointly develop objectives for new discovery, innovation, and advancing the development of emerging technology.

The Industry Research Alliances Specialist works with each company and the principal investigators to identify research objectives, scope projects, and develop Sponsored Research Agreements which meets the needs of both parties.

The Office of Innovation understands industry partners will want access to research results and project-related intellectual property. To prevent the sometimes lengthy negotiations involving intellectual property licensing and help eliminate the risks for industry partners, SJSU developed standardized options for partners to secure an upfront license to any intellectual property created in the course of a research project.

These simplified and streamlined options (described below) are included in our standard Sponsored Research Agreement, removing any ambiguity and uncertainty from the process. We hope these options lead to deeper collaborations between the university and our industry partners and to the transference of more technologies into commercialized products and services benefiting society.

Project Intellectual Property Options

The University will consider the following guidelines as it relates to options for ownership of intellectual property created by the University during the project. The sponsor should select the preferred option from the choices below. In all cases, the University shall retain rights for research and teaching purposes.

Option Description
Negotiate a license to project intellectual property

The research agreement will provide the sponsor with an exclusive 90-day option to negotiate the terms of a license to any project intellectual property created by the University. There is no innovation fee for this option. 

Grant of a commercial non-exclusive royalty-free license

The research agreement will provide a non-exclusive commercial license to project intellectual property. The standard innovation fee for this option is 10% of research amount or minimum $10K (whichever is greater). 

Grant of an exclusive royalty-free license

The research agreement will provide for an exclusive commercial license to project intellectual property. The standard innovation fee for this option is as follows: 

15% of research amount or minimum $25K (whichever is greater), plus 
Additional 1% annual royalty on cumulative net sales over $20M
Additional 2% annual royalty on cumulative net sales over $200M

Contact for Further Information

Jason Kim
Industry Research Alliances Specialist
(408) 924-1300
jason.h.kim@sjsu.edu