PROCESS OF LICENSING

The below figure shows a usual technology licensing process followed at KFUPM:

Licensing process

If you are from an established company or you are an entrepreneur (who plans to make a technology-based startup), then please note following steps involved in licensing an intellectual property (IP) of KFUPM:

  1. Explore: We encourage you to first explore our hand-picked inventions or check KFUPM’s vast portfolio of Patents.
  2. NDA: Once you select a KFUPM invention, we recommend your company to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) so that our inventor can discuss confidential technical details of the invention and you can submit company’s plans. You may check here our NDA template.
  3. OPTION & VALIDATION: Your company can sign an ‘Option to negotiate a license’ agreement with KFUPM thereby KFUPM assures not offering such license for the IP to any third party. This gives your company time (usually 6-12 months) to conduct its technical and commercial assessment of the invention. To sign an Option agreement, our office needs company’s plan of activities for the agreed time period. Financial terms of the Option agreement include a reasonable one-time fee. You may check here our Option template. If your company needs KFUPM inventors to support the technical validation work, we can discuss the same.
  4. BUSINESS PLAN: If your company is reasonably satisfied with the invention’s market opportunity and is ready to commercialize the KFUPM invention, our office needs company’s Business Plan (a reasonably detailed written plan showing your company’s commitment and capacity for developing and commercializing the technology). We encourage you to check our guide before preparing the business plan.
  5. LICENSING: A license is an agreement made to provide legal rights to the company to use the KFUPM’s IP in developing, manufacturing, making and selling product(s) or service(s). The standard License terms include financial (upfront license fee (a signing amount), annual license fees (creditable towards royalty), royalty (a percentage of your sales revenue), patent expense reimbursement), milestones to be reached by the company (as per the business plan), rights of each party etc.
  6. DEVELOPMENT: After singing a License, your company develops the technology or product as per market needs and explore its possible markets / customers.
  7. PRODUCTION: When customer(s) are available, your company starts producing and selling the product or service to the customer(s). Our office shall maintain a relationship with your company in tracking your company’s commercialization progress (against milestones presented in the business plan) and also ensuring agreed payments from the company to university.

Please contact to discuss a license: ip-license @ kfupm.edu.sa