Principles and Guidelines for Recipients of NIH Research Grants and Contracts
As a public sponsor of biomedical research, NIH has a dual interest
in accelerating scientific discovery and facilitating product development.
In 1997, Dr. Harold Varmus, Director, NIH requested that a Working
Group of the Advisory Committee to the Director look into problems
encountered in the dissemination and use of unique research resources,
the competing interests of intellectual property owners and research
tool users, and possible NIH responses. The Working Group found
that intellectual property restrictions can stifle the broad dissemination
of new discoveries and limit future avenues of research and product
development. At the same time, reasonable restrictions on the dissemination
of research tools are sometimes necessary to protect legitimate
proprietary interests and to preserve incentives for commercial
development. One of the recommendations of the Working Group was
that NIH issue guidance to its funding recipients to help them achieve
the appropriate balance. That guidance is provided in a two-part
document, Principles and Guidelines for Recipients of NIH Research Grants and Contracts on Obtaining and Disseminating Biomedical Research Resources, consisting of Principles
setting forth the fundamental concepts and Guidelines
that provide specific information to patent and license professionals
and sponsored research administrators for implementation. The full
Report
of the Working Group has detailed background information.
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