There have been some questions recently regarding obligations to identify and manage potential conflict of interest with respect to intellectual property, and what that means for both conflict of interest committees as well as technology management offices.
The issues take multiple forms:
- The case where a current or potential licensee is an entity in which existing financial interest is held
- The case where a current or potential licensee is also a current or potential sponsor of research
- The case where a current or potential licensee is a competitor of an entity in which existing financial interest is held
- The case where a current or potential licensee is a competitor of a current or potential sponsor of research
Obviously the nature of intellectual property licensing is such that there is an inherent financial stake, however as these offices transition their focus to technology commercialization and regional economic development, there is additional scrutiny with respect to license agreements and the transfer of rights to startup companies.
As with any potential conflict, the key to managing these issues is having mechanisms available to perform due diligence and in particular, having the ability to readily identify relationships without extraneous information.
