Badger IP Industry Advantage | Research | UW–Madison Skip to main content
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Badger IP Industry Advantage

Badger IP Industry Advantage is the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s approach to transforming discoveries into innovative solutions by streamlining partnerships between businesses and the University. The program provides several options for Intellectual Property (IP) licensing tied to sponsored research conducted with industry partners.

The goal of the program is to provide research sponsors several options for access to patents developed through their sponsorship of research at UW–Madison.

“The Badger IP Industry Advantage program makes partnering with UW–Madison transparent, fair and easier to negotiate, thereby  saving time and expense. Our goal is to create partnerships that help grow the Wisconsin Idea by focusing on research, innovation and bringing new products to market that can address society’s emerging challenges. We want you to grow your business with us.”

— Cynthia Czajkowski, interim vice chancellor for research at UW–Madison

There are three options:

The Varsity and The Bascom were created with the idea of providing greater financial certainty for access to intellectual property from industry-funded research. The Classic provides a traditional approach of waiting until intellectual property is created to negotiate a license to arising technology.

The Classic

Sponsor negotiates a license for resulting intellectual property at the time of intellectual property creation.

· No upfront fee.

· Sponsor and UW–Madison negotiate an exclusive or non-exclusive license within a field of use to patented inventions once the option is exercised.

The Varsity

Sponsor may elect a non-exclusive license for a set fee or negotiate an exclusive license, at the time of intellectual property creation.

· Option to a non-exclusive royalty free (i) license to Sponsor and affiliates in a field of use for a fixed fee of $10,000.

· Option to negotiate an exclusive, royalty-bearing patent license with sublicensing rights.

· Free internal research during the term of the project.

The Bascom

Pre-paid exclusive, royalty free (i), worldwide license to all inventions arising from the research project.

· 10% of the total project budget (or $15,000, whichever is greater) for an exclusive license in a field of use.

· 15% of the total project budget (or $22,500, whichever is greater) for an exclusive license in all fields of use.

· Payment made at the start of the sponsored research project.

Terms Applicable to All Options:

· UW–Madison Principal Investigator and Sponsor must mutually agree on the selected model.

· Rights to Background IP are separately negotiated.

· Reimbursement to University for out-of-pocket and maintenance costs of the licensed patents.

· Written confirmatory licenses that:

  • Reserve rights for UW to practice project IP for non-commercial research and education purposes.

  • The right to grant non-commercial licenses to other educational institutions, non-profits, and the federal government.

  • Reasonable obligations to commercialize.

 

(i)  Royalty free unless annual sales of the licensed technology exceed $20 million, after which a fixed 2% royalty on product sales. Where such products are incorporated and sold in combination with other products for a single unit price, the net sales and any resulting royalty shall be solely with respect the percentage of the combination total price that is attributable to the product that incorporates, utilizes, or is produced by the practice of such University or Joint Invention.