Patents and copyright

Intellectual property rights – what is it?

Intellectual property rights (Swedish: immaterialrätt) refers to the laws that regulate the right to protection for various forms of intellectual property, such as patents, trademarks and copyrights to literary and artistic works. 

Intellectual property rights, such as a copyright or patent, belong to the person who made an intellectual effort to achieve the finding. There are no intellectual property rights for purely factual data.

Findings based on research data may be covered by intellectual property rights if they are based on an individual’s choice of method, for example. Visit the pages on patents and copyright on Aktum for more information about intellectual property rights.

Visit Aktum for more information about patents and copyrights (UMU ID required)

You can receive support

Innovation Support and Umeå universitet Holding AB can provide personalised advice and assessment of findings that can be commercialised or used in some other way. They can assist with mapping intellectual property and civil law ownership and devise strategies for managing your findings. Commercialising findings does not necessarily mean forming your own company. Innovation Support and Umeå universitet Holding AB can help you find alternative forms of commercialisation, such as licensing models.

Read more on the page Utilise your research results

Patentable inventions

In some situations, a patent on results may provide a competitive advantage for the recipient of the results. Results freely available to everyone normally reduces the incentive to invest. One strategy for commercialising your findings could be to apply for a patent.

Applying for a patent to an invention requires that the invention is new and previously unknown. This may mean that you need to wait to publish the results of your research. It is important to determine what part of your findings can be protected by a patent. Because research projects typically involve multiple individuals, you also need to determine who contributed to the invention. To be considered an inventor, you must have contributed an intellectual performance; it is not enough to have made a mechanical contribution, for example by conducting tests.

Simply meeting the criteria for being considered an author of a publication is not sufficient to be considered an inventor. You need to have specifically contributed to the invention that can be patented.

Determining ownership in collaborations, especially with foreign contributors, can take time.

Review agreements

Many cooperation agreements with private or foreign contributors include conditions on the rights to the result. Agreements may include an option to acquire ownership rights or the right of use to the findings. These clauses can impact whether you can commercialise the findings. All clauses in an agreement are to be reviewed before signing the contract, since conditions may sometimes be hidden under unexpected headings. Do not sign an agreement if you are uncertain of its implications. Agreements to which Umeå University is a party are reviewed by the Legal Affairs Office.

Read more about agreements in research collaborations on the pages about collaboration

Wait to publish

Publishing results could prevent commercialisation. For example, if you want to apply for a patent, the invention may not be previously known or published anywhere. As such, you may need to wait to publish the findings of your research. Some protection applies to the findings once a patent application is filed. 

Publishing the findings of your research while a patent application is being processed can diminish the novelty of the information not included in the application. The Swedish Patent and Registration Office (PRV) has a guide for important dates in the patent application process.

Read more about important dates in the patent application process (prv.se)