Council Regulation (EC) No 71/2007 (repealed)Show full title

Article 23 Intellectual property policy

1. The intellectual property (IP) policy of the Clean Sky Joint Undertaking shall be incorporated in the grant agreements concluded by the Clean Sky Joint Undertaking.

2. Its objective is to promote knowledge creation and its exploitation, to achieve fair allocation of rights, to reward innovation, and to achieve a broad participation of private and public entities responding to calls for proposals, subject to signature of a grant agreement with the Clean Sky Joint Undertaking.

3. The IP policy shall be governed by the principles, that each legal entity having concluded a grant agreement with the Clean Sky Joint Undertaking shall remain the owner of:

(a) information which is held by participants prior to their accession to the grant agreement, as well as copyrights or other intellectual property rights pertaining to such information, the application for which has been filed before their accession to the grant agreement, and which is needed for carrying out the project or for using the Foreground of the project (hereafter called Background);

(b) the results, including information, whether or not they can be protected, which are generated by the project concerned; such results include rights related to copyright, design rights, patent rights or similar forms of protection (hereafter called ‘Foreground). Jointly developed Foreground shall belong to all participants developing it if their respective contributions cannot be ascertained. Unless otherwise agreed each joint owner shall be entitled to use such jointly developed Foreground free of charge in its own business and for future research.

Creators of Foreground shall take reasonable steps to protect it, in particular by filing patents. Where such steps are not taken by the creator or by other participants in the ITD with the creator's consent the Joint Undertaking itself, acting through the relevant ITD Steering Committee, may apply for protection.

4. The terms and conditions of access rights and licenses between legal entities having concluded a grant agreement with the Clean Sky Joint Undertaking shall be defined in the grant agreement with regards to Background and Foreground for the purposes of completing the projects, Foreground for research use, and Background necessary to use Foreground for research use.

5. Subject to appropriate undertakings of confidentiality, the legal entities having concluded a grant agreement with the Clean Sky Joint Undertaking shall disclose information relating to Foreground and disseminate Foreground under terms and conditions defined in the grant agreement.