Washington State University

We were able to locate detailed royalty sharing information for Washington State University dating as far back as 1991.

An email from a representative of WSU stated that the school has had two iterations of its Patent Policy. The first was in effect in 1992. The second iteration was formally adopted in 2000 and remained in effect through 2014. The third and current iteration was proposed and adopted in 2015.

Summary

Institution	Start	End	Flat	$0-10k	$10-50k	$50-100k	$100-300k	$300-500k	$0.5-1M	>$1M	Fee	Lab	More
Washington State University	1991	2000	No	1.00	0.45	0.30	0.30	0.30	0.30	0.30	0.225	No	No
Washington State University	2001	2015	No	1.00	0.50	0.50	0.38	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.2	No	No

Policy Excerpts

2016 Policy Excerpt

2016 Policy

Division of Patent Royalties

a) All monetary proceeds from commercialization of University-owned inventions are the property of the University or its assignee. The University or its designee will collect and distribute royalties, fees, equity interests, or dividends to inventors and the University in accordance with procedures established by the University.

(1) The University or its designee will deduct the costs of obtaining and maintaining legal protection for each invention to arrive at "adjusted income" unless other arrangements, agreed to by all parties that share in the income, are made by the relevant branch campus, research unit or program in advance of the expense and agreed to with the OC. Such arrangements may include contracted marketing, licensing, and business development. In such cases, any agreed upon expenses will be deducted to arrive at adjusted income.

(2) The Office of Commercialization will deduct twenty percent (20%) from adjusted income and the remainder will be "net income." This deduction is directed toward covering the expenses (excluding direct patent expenses) for administering the OC and provides initial funds for patent prosecution for other inventions without obvious commercial partners.

(3) Net income will be distributed according to the following schedule.

Cumulative Net Income	Inventor	University
$1 - $10,000	100%
$10,001 - $200,000	50%	50%

University's portion of the share will be distributed as follows:

30% to the University

20% to the college and department (or relevant branch campus, research unit, or Program when appropriate) to be equally split between the two

(4) With consideration to other University priorities and policies, the University or its designee will distribute one-third of its share to the Office of the Vice President for Research to be invested in and maintained by the OC as an "enforcement fund" to be used for legal claims against University intellectual property, and the remaining one-third of its share to be used by the OC towards a "commercialization fund" to be reinvested in commercialization activities and projects.

(5) The OC enforcement fund allocation will be deducted only when necessary to maintain a $150,000 balance for all inventions under this section; the distribution to the OC Enforcement Fund will cease while the Fund maintains a $150,000 balance and the University share will then be distributed equally to the vice president for Research and the OC Commercialization Fund. Any enforcement expenses incurred above $150,000 would be shared by all parties that share in the income, in the proportion of their share of income, for that specific invention and will be deducted as legal expense in step IV.G.8.a.1. Any net proceeds, after expenses, earned as a result of enforcement will be used to first replenish the enforcement fund. Any net proceeds remaining after replenishing the Enforcement Fund will be added to adjusted income.

An advisory body comprising a representative from each of the inventor/creator/breeder groups contributing to the OC enforcement fund and other appropriate faculty and administrators will make recommendations on the use of the OC enforcement fund to the president via the Office of Commercialization. The president may then make recommendations to the Board of Regents who have the final authority to initiate a legal action on behalf of WSU.

b) In the event of multiple inventors, the inventors will agree among themselves as to the distribution of the income accruing to the inventors; distribution of the inventors' share shall be made only upon receipt of a signed agreement among the inventors.

d) The University or its designee may negotiate, but shall not be obligated to negotiate, for equity interests in lieu of or in addition to royalty and/or monetary consideration as part of an agreement relating to inventions or Copyrighted Works. Any equity interests acquired pursuant to this section shall be held and managed by the Washington State University's designee. Neither the Washington State University nor its designee acts as a fiduciary for any person concerning equity nor other consideration received under the terms of this regulation. Upon liquidation, the proceeds from the equity interests held by the University designee will be distributed according to the schedule in secion IV.G.8.a.

2001 Policy Excerpt

2001 Policy

Division of Patent Royalties

a) All monetary proceeds from commercialization of University-owned inventions are the property of the University or its assignee. The University or its designee will collect and distribute royalties, fees, equity interests, or dividends to inventors and University in accordance with procedures established by the University.

(1) The University or its designee will deduct the costs of obtaining and maintaining legal protection for each invention to arrive at "adjusted income."

(2) The University or its designee will deduct twenty percent (20%) from adjusted income and the remainder will be "net income." This deduction is directed toward covering the expenses (excluding direct patent expenses) for administering OC and provides initial funds for patent prosecution for other inventions without obvious commercial partners.

(3) Distribute net income according to the following schedule.

Cumulative Net Income	Inventor	University
$1 - $10,000	100%
$10,001 - $200,000	50%	50%
Above $200,000	25%	75%

(4) With consideration to other University priorities and policies, the University or its designee will distribute a portion of its share to the Office of the Vice President for Research to be invested in further research and technology efforts for the University and at least 20% of its share to be split equally between the inventor's department and College (or relevant branch campus when appropriate) for further research.

b) Inventors, whose technology was previously assigned to the former non-profit intellectual property manager for WSU, the WSU Research Foundation for administration, will be given the one-time option of selecting the above Division of Royalty policy over any pre-existing royalty policy.

c) In the event of multiple inventors, the inventors will agree among themselves as to the distribution of the income accruing to the inventors; distribution of the inventors' share shall be made only upon receipt of a signed agreement among the inventors.

d) The University or its designee may negotiate, but shall not be obligated to negotiate, for equity interests in lieu of or in addition to royalty and/or monetary consideration as part of an agreement relating to inventions or Copyrighted Works. Any equity interests acquired pursuant to this section shall be held and managed by the Washington State University Foundation. Neither the Washington State University Foundation nor University acts as a fiduciary for any person concerning equity nor other consideration received under the terms of this regulation.

1992 Policy Excerpt

1992 Policy

In adopting this policy statement the Washington State University Board of Regents recommended and the Board of Directors of the Washington State University Research Foundation adopted the following policy for distribution of royalties from patents:

Following the filing of a patent application on a particular invention which has been determined to be University property, the inventor will receive a $500 payment from the WSURF. If the invention is determined to be owned jointly by the employee and the University or by the employee, the University and one or more external agencies, unless the parties agree otherwise, the inventor shall receive a sum equal to $500 multiplied by the percentage of the University's interest. Where several employees are responsible for the invention, the payment shall be shared among the coinventors.

Net royalty income received by WSURF shall be defined as one or the other of the following: (1) in the case of property administered by an agency other than the WSURF (such as the Battelle Development Corporation, Research Corporation, or Washington Research Foundation) the sum received that is subject to this policy less a 5% administrative charge to be retained by WSURF; or (2) in the case of property administered by WSURF, the amount received that is subject to this policy less a 40% administrative charge to be retained by WSURF.

Net royalty income received by WSURF shall be distributed according to the following schedule:

Cumulative Net Income	Inventor	WSU Research Foundation	Unit (e.g., Department)
$1 - $10,000	100%	0%	0%
$10,001 - $40,000	50%	20%	30%
Above $40,000	50%	35%	35%

In the case of multiple inventors, the cumulative net royalty income shall be distributed equally among them unless their initial disclosure specified an unequal distribution.

Royalty income allocated to inventors goes directly to them as personal income.

Relevant Links

• WSU Office of Commercialization
• 2016 Policy
• 2001 Policy
• 1992 Policy