ACTSI Announces an Intellectual Property Agreement between Emory & Morehouse School of Medicine

Seeking to increase the efficiency and speed of clinical and translational research in Atlanta and beyond, the partner institutions of the Atlanta Clinical & Translational Science Institute (ACTSI) recently signed an agreement clarifying exclusive copyright, trademark, and patent rights on discoveries made by collaborating research investigators at Emory University and Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM).

Through its Ethics & Regulatory program, the ACTSI recently secured an Intellectual Property (IP) Agreement between Emory and MSM. The same agreement was already in place between Emory and the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Since the ACTSI’s creation in 2007, the program has also achieved expanded IRB Reciprocity and Data Use Agreements across all ACTSI partner institutions – Emory, MSM, Georgia Tech, and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

The IP agreement states that jointly developed/owned intellectual property will be jointly owned by the institutions and gives licensing and commercialization procedures for jointly developed discoveries. Finally, the agreement clarifies payment of expenses and division of royalty income. “These agreements serve to make investigators more efficient and allow them to focus their efforts on actual research projects and not overcoming the administrative burdens in getting multiple institutional approvals. It is through research efforts that we see improvements in care and in the lives of the children in our community,” said Elizabeth Ofili, MD, MPH, ACTSI Senior Co-Principal Investigator, Associate Dean for Clinical Research, Director, Clinical Research Center, Chief of Cardiology and Professor, Department of Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine.

An important initiative of the ACTSI is to enhance efficiency, breakdown administrative barriers, and accelerate the pace of quality science. IRB Reciprocity, Intellectual Property Agreements, Data Use Agreements, Materials Transfer Agreements, and other cooperative agreements must be in place to achieve this goal to allow full collaboration among ACTSI partners.

“This agreement will allow us to facilitate the conduct of clinical and translational research across Atlanta by promoting collaboration. Thanks to this IP agreement, research investigators at Emory, MSM, and Georgia Tech will encounter fewer roadblocks when collaborating. This agreement supports the mission of the ACTSI consortium by accelerating discoveries towards better health,” said Dr. David Stephens, ACTSI Principal Investigator and Vice President for Research, Woodruff Health Sciences Center, Emory University.