Innovedum project rights
Conditions, licensing and property rights
General conditions
Please take note of the following general conditions when undertaking an Innovedum application:
- Pursuant to Art. 36, Para. 1 of the ETH Act, all rights to intangible assets created by ETH Zurich employees during the course of their official activities there belong to ETH Zurich, with the exception of intellectual property rights. User rights to computer programmes belong solely to ETH Zurich.
- Should inventions be generated within the framework of the Innovedum project, the ETH Board Regulations on Intellectual Property and Equity [Regelungen der Immaterialgüter- und Beteiligungsverordnung des ETH-Rates] (RSETHZ 125) and the ETH Zurich Financial Exploitation Guidelines [Verwertungsrichtlinien der ETH Zürich] (RSETHZ 440.4) apply.
- Should copyrighted works generated by the Innovedum project (e.g., textbooks) assume commercial value, any incomes which they generate go to the respective ETH unit (department, institute, chair etc.).
- Out-licensing of software (e.g. for open source) that is created during an Innovedum project is possible. The IP & Licensing Group at ETH is available as a contact for out-licensing and spin-offs in general.
Transfer of intellectual property rights to ETH Zurich
If the interest is well grounded, the Rector reserves the right to transfer to ETH Zurich the intellectual property rights to results of projects financed by Innovedum funds. In this context those responsible for the project must, after approval of their application by the Rector, sign the following declaration of consent regarding the transfer of rights:
“The undersigned hereby transfers to ETH Zurich all intellectual property rights to results of projects financed by Innovedum funds, should financial exploitation rights not already lie legally solely with ETH Zurich (computer programmes). Excepted are copyrighted personal rights, if not legally transferable. ETH Zurich may utilize project results (e.g., teaching materials, documentation and learning software) without temporal, spatial or material restrictions. This consent covers all current and future potential application rights to use, publication, expression, duplication and alteration.”
With the consent of the Rector you will be informed as to the legal situation of the project in question.