Policies & Procedures

LSU policies governing intellectual property are issued as Bylaws & Regulations of the LSU Board of Supervisors, Permanent Memoranda from the President, and Policy Statements from a specific LSU institution.  

Policies relevant to LSU intellectual property management include: 

• Chapter VII of the Board Regulations on Intellectual Property
• PM-11 Outside Employment of University Employees
  • LSU Baton Rouge Campus Form
• PM-15 Copyright Guidelines Regarding Electronic Learning
• PM-67 Contracts between the University and Faculty Members
• PS-68 University Intellectual Property Rights in Sponsored Research Projects
• PS-77 Distribution of Campus Share of "Distribution Royalties"
• PS-93 Use of University Name and Indicia

 For more information on LSU policies, go to LSU University Policies. 

Bayh-Dole Act (PL 96-517)

Reporting inventions to the U.S. Government as specified in 35 USC Section 202

Trademark Clarification Act of 1984 (PL 98-620),

Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986 (PL 99-502)

While Bylaws and Permanent Memoranda are common to all campuses, each campus has its own Policy Statements. Individuals who have joint appointments with other LSU campuses, other universities, or outside entities should contact the Office of Innovation & Technology Commercialization for information pertaining to policies and procedures governing intellectual property in such cases. Those who are employed by another campus within the LSU System should consult their campus technology transfer office for information on the handling of intellectual property at that campus.

Since only a handful of individuals are authorized to sign contracts on behalf of the University, it is important not to personally sign any contracts that should be signed by a University official (e.g., research contracts, confidentiality agreements, material transfer agreements, licenses, etc.). It is important to note the University can elect not to honor a contract that is signed without proper authority. In such a case, the researcher could be personally liable if he or she has inappropriately signed a legal document. For the researcher's own protection, the researcher is strongly encouraged to contact the appropriate LSU office when presented with a contract related in any way to the researcher's work at LSU, this will ensure that the contract is reviewed for compliance with LSU's policies, negotiated for changes where needed, and approved and signed by the proper LSU official.

For a listing of example contracts administered through the Office of Intellectual Property, Commercialization & Development visit the Forms and Agreements section of this website.

The Office of Sponsored Programs has a standard research agreement template modeled after the Simplified and Standard Model Agreements for Industry-University Cooperative Research, which was a joint effort of the Government-University-Industry-Research Roundtable of the National Academy of Sciences and the Industrial Research Institute.

For proposals to commercial concerns, the Office of Sponsored Programs will prepare a suitable research contract. Consequently, such proposals should be routed in GeauxGrants well in advance of any sponsor-imposed deadline. The Principal Investigator will be advised by Office of Sponsored Programs to submit the research contract with the approved proposal to the sponsor.

This procedure should streamline the negotiation process and decrease the time and effort required to reach an equitable agreement.

Any faculty or staff member engaged in consulting work or in business for himself/herself is responsible for complying with PM-11, and for ensuring that the clauses in his or her agreements are not in conflict with intellectual property policies of the University or with University commitments. The Office of Research & Economic Development will, upon request, provide assistance in this respect. The University's rights and the individual's obligations to the University should in no way be abrogated or limited by the terms of such agreements. Faculty and staff members should make their obligations to the University clear to those with whom they make such agreements and should ensure that other parties to the agreement are provided with a current statement of the University's patent policy. Permanent Memorandum 11 should be used for all such purposes. Contact the Office of Research and Economic Development for assistance in such matters. 

The Office of Innovation & Technology Commercialization makes available to the public via licenses inventions resulting from LSU research. This office negotiates the terms of the license, including reasonable initial licensing fees royalties, and other fees, for use in furthering LSU's educational and research goals.

When a technology is licensed, LSU still holds title to the technology. Only certain rights in the technology are granted to the licensee, under specific terms and conditions, as specified by LSU Policy. 

Licensing income received from a technology license is distributed among inventor(s) and the appropriate areas within LSU in accordance with Chapter VII of the Bylaws & Regulations of the LSU Board of Supervisors and  Policy Statement 77. After reimbursement of LSU's patent and legal expenses, distributable income is allocated as follows for the LSU's Flagship institution based in Baton Rouge (other campuses may have slightly different royalty distribution): 

40% Inventor(s)
17% Inventor(s)' department(s)
5% Office of the President
5% LIFT Fund
5% Inventor(s)’ college(s)
3% Inventor(s)' campus
25% Office of Research and Economic Development

As a general rule, inventions by LSU employees during their employment at LSU belong to LSU, even when the inventor later leaves LSU for one reason or another. An inventor who leaves LSU will continue to share in Distributable Royalties arising from inventions made while at LSU. If appropriate, an LSU employee should contact the Office of Innovation & Technology Commercialization or his/her department chair to schedule an "exit interview" before leaving LSU. At the exit interview, LSU's policies on intellectual property will be reviewed, and the departing employee will be asked to make a final disclosure of any inventions not previously disclosed to the Office of Innovation & Technology Commercialization.