Forms and Agreements

A Confidential Disclosure Agreement is a simple but very important contract that governs the sharing of confidential information between two parties. A CDA is often the first step prior to sharing of sensitive and unpublished information that enables in-depth analysis of a potential collaboration or business opportunity. Confidential information may include unpublished research results and data from City of Hope that will be disclosed to a potential partner, and vice-versa. Confidential information can include novel compound structures, biologics, processes, custom medias, sequences, and know-how.

The CDA defines how the receiving party will protect and use the confidential information. The sharing of information may be one-way, where only one party is disclosing confidential information or it can be mutual, where both parties are disclosing confidential information. CDAs are sometimes referred to as nondisclosure or secrecy agreements.

Please contact the OTL when an outside organization requests or provides a CDA. We will ensure the terms of the agreement are reasonable and acquire signatures from the necessary institutional representative.

 

A Material Transfer Agreement is a contract that governs the transfer of tangible research materials between two organizations. Materials are often transferred between organizations for research. The MTA defines both the rights of the provider and recipient with respect to ownership and permissible use of the materials and of any derivatives that may result from the research. Materials most often transferred to and from City of Hope include research reagents such as, cell lines, plasmids, vectors, and mice. However, MTAs may also be used for other types of materials, such as chemical compounds and software.

OTL negotiates and executes hundreds of MTAs each year. We have developed efficient processes to handle all incoming and outgoing agreements quickly, especially when sending materials to other non-profit academic institutions. We have developed an expedited MTA form that takes only a matter of days to complete. Not every institution or company has simple MTAs like we do, therefore, the more complex incoming materials may take a little longer to negotiate; our job is to protect the interest of the researchers as well as City of Hope as an institution.

Please submit any requests for material transfers to mta@coh.org and a team member will guide you through the process to obtain a suitable MTA.

 

Research collaboration agreements between two academic institutions are generally straightforward contracts that formally memorialize research collaborations. The agreement typically describes the scope of the project and some of the duties of each party. The majority of the intellectual property that result from the collaborative effort will be jointly owned. Both institutions will work together to advance the technology. We encourage our researchers to collaborate with scientists from City of Hope as well as with other institutions because we understand high impact science often result from collective efforts. We are here to catalyze such collaboration by ensuring the terms of the collaboration agreements are fair to both parties.

 

An industry sponsored research agreement is a contract between the City of Hope and a company that is funding research of interest to them. When a company has particular interest in an area of research, but does not have the relevant personnel, expertise or resources to complete their own studies, they may provide funding and equipment to support a specific academic investigator’s efforts to perform the research of interest.

The majority of research funding at City of Hope is from federal grants, private and charitable organizations, and City of Hope internal research funding. For matters related to the federally sponsored (NIH, DARPA, etc.) research grants, please contact City of Hope’s Office of Sponsored Research (OSR).

 

A license agreement is a contract that grants an outside party (licensee) the permission to use or practice City of Hope IP and defines the specific terms of how and where the protected IP can be used. Most licensed technologies are early stage and require significant investment of time and resources from the licensee to fully mature. Our license terms are structured to ensure that a licensee invests the appropriate amount of resources to advance the technology within a reasonable time frame. Our license agreements also include appropriate fees and royalties that capture the projected market value of granted IP rights and are mutually agreeable to both the licensee and City of Hope.

City of Hope shares with inventors all licensing revenue once the expenses have been recovered. The expenses generally involve unreimbursed expenses related to the protection of the IP or other expenses associated with negotiating and executing the agreement. To learn more about the how City of Hope shares licensing revenues with inventors please contact OTL.

If a company has approached you to inquire about licensing a technology or if you would like to learn more about license agreements, please contact OTL.