Negotiating Collaborative Healthcare Research Agreements

Collaborative research agreements establish obligations, protect parties’ rights, including in IP, and allocate risk. In these agreements, technology that needs to be licensed must be licensed to the research participants at all the institutions involved. The agreement should define those currently entitled to use the technology and include a mechanism to account for future institutions and researchers that may join the research project.

Materials provided by the participants, all results and data arising from the research project, and all inventions must remain confidential. Counsel must thus include clear and specific confidentiality provisions in the collaborative research agreement.

Counsel to healthcare providers, pharmaceutical and medical device companies, and universities must anticipate potential obstacles that can impede negotiations. Careful structuring of collaborative research agreements is crucial to ensure risk allocation and protection of rights.

Listen as our authoritative panel of experienced attorneys examines the potential obstacles in collaborative research agreement negotiations, key provisions that should be included, and the critical issues surrounding those provisions. The panel will outline best practices for effectively structuring collaborative research agreements.

1. Potential obstacles in collaborative research agreement negotiations
2. Key provisions and the critical issues surrounding them
   1. Structure and governance
   2. Joint obligations
   3. IP issues
   4. Confidentiality
   5. Publication and other use
   6. Liability
   7. Other key terms
3. Best practices for effectively crafting collaborative research agreements

The panel will review these and other key issues:

• What are the significant stumbling blocks that can hinder the parties in negotiating a collaborative research agreement?
• What collaborative research agreement provisions ensure that parties’ rights regarding any intellectual property created as a result of the research are protected?
• What challenges are raised by multiple licenses and how can counsel overcome those challenges?