Protect discovery. Move useful knowledge into the world.

Scope

This policy is intended to apply to inventions, discoveries, software, source code, models, databases, research data, publications, designs, media, educational materials, trademarks, domain names, methods, prototypes, and other intellectual creations.

It may apply to trustees, officers, employees, researchers, fellows, students, volunteers, contractors, collaborators, and sponsored-project participants.

Ownership and Creator Agreements

Ownership should be determined by the creator’s relationship to the Institute, the use of institutional resources, the scope of assigned duties, sponsor terms, collaboration agreements, and applicable law.

Personal scholarly or creative work developed independently and outside assigned responsibilities may remain with the creator, subject to any written agreement and use of Institute resources.

Invention and Creation Disclosure

Creators should disclose potentially protectable, licensable, safety-critical, sponsor-controlled, or commercially useful work before public release when delay is necessary to preserve rights.

• Identify creators and their contributions
• Describe the invention, work, software, or dataset
• List funding, sponsors, collaborators, and resources used
• Identify prior publication or planned disclosure dates
• Describe possible applications, risks, and public benefits

Publications and Scholarly Communication

Researchers should retain the ability to report methods, evidence, limitations, corrections, and valid conclusions.

Short review periods may be used to protect confidential information, remove third-party material, identify patentable inventions, or satisfy lawful sponsor obligations. Review should not become indefinite suppression.

Software, Data, Models, and Digital Assets

Software and digital assets should be reviewed for ownership, open-source licenses, third-party code, training data, privacy, security, export controls, maintenance, documentation, interoperability, and long-term support.

Release may occur through open-source licensing, research-use agreements, hosted services, commercial licenses, public datasets, controlled-access repositories, or other approved models.

Sponsor, Donor, and Collaborator Rights

Agreements should define background intellectual property, newly developed intellectual property, publication review, confidentiality, data rights, patent costs, licensing options, and ownership of jointly created work.

Sponsors and donors should not receive undisclosed control over research conclusions, governance, personnel, or public communications.

Protection and Filing Decisions

The Institute may consider novelty, usefulness, patentability, public need, mission value, development cost, market potential, safety, regulatory burden, publication impact, and whether protection is necessary for responsible deployment.

The Institute may decide not to pursue protection when open publication, defensive disclosure, public-domain release, or another pathway better serves the mission.

Licensing and Access

Licenses may be exclusive, nonexclusive, field-limited, time-limited, territory-limited, open, research-only, humanitarian, or commercial.

• Require reasonable development milestones
• Preserve research and educational rights where appropriate
• Address safety, quality, compliance, and misuse
• Provide termination rights for nonperformance
• Avoid unnecessary restrictions on public benefit

Commercialization and Technology Transfer

Mature technologies may be transferred through established companies, new ventures, public agencies, universities, nonprofits, manufacturers, operators, or other qualified partners.

Where appropriate, Dennco Holding Company may be considered as a separate commercial deployment partner, subject to independent review, fair terms, conflict-of-interest controls, valuation, and preservation of the Institute’s charitable independence.

Revenue, Costs, and Creator Participation

Gross revenue may be reduced by approved patent, legal, filing, prosecution, licensing, enforcement, maintenance, and commercialization costs.

Any creator-sharing formula should be documented, consistently applied, and approved through governance. Remaining net revenue should support research, education, preservation, institutional capacity, and further technology development.

Framework date: July 2026