March 16, 2007

Forum planned to discuss faculty role with Mann Institute

While the Purdue Research Foundation's agreement with the Alfred Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering will help move research to market, it also protects faculty interests in several ways, said George Wodicka, head of the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering.

Some of the safeguards include:

*  Intellectual property under existing agreements or funded by a company is not available to the institute.

*   The Purdue Research Foundation can exempt some intellectual property if other technology transfer routes are deemed more attractive.

*   The institute has 120 days to decide to select a project.

*   For selected projects, patent protection will be rapidly obtained in order to maximize intellectual property worth and minimize time to publication.

*   Purdue faculty members will be able to serve as institute members.

*   Each selected product will include development plans that include the faculty member's input.

*   If relatively rapid technical progress of a selected product does not occur, the intellectual property rights will revert back to the Purdue Research Foundation and then be made available for development through other technology transfer routes.

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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