Licensing
Licensing is one of the main ways we help turn ideas into innovation-led impact. We’ll help you manage the process of granting a third party the rights to your intellectual property (IP), so they can develop it.
How licensing works
By licensing IP to external organisations – including spinouts (companies founded on University research), the University can retain ownership and control of its IP, while enabling your company or industry partners to develop it.
In fact, all of our licences include clauses that allow the University of Oxford to continue using the IP for ongoing research.
Licensing also generates royalty income, which is shared with inventors and reinvested to support further research and innovation at Oxford.
Whether it’s allowing companies to build products, supporting academic collaboration or creating revenue to reinvest in research, we help find the right licensing route for you.
Licensing options
We support several licensing approaches, including:
- Exclusive licences where one organisation has the sole right to exploit the IP
- Non-exclusive licences where the IP can be licensed to multiple organisations, enabling wider uptake
- Academic-only licences to encourage research use while still retaining market opportunities
In some cases, a licence is also combined with a research contract with the University; or a consultancy arrangement, where the researcher or academic creator provides technical advice or support.
Licensing terms to look out for
Some parts of a licence have a direct impact on you as a researcher. We’ll help explain these points and answer any questions – before and during the licensing process.
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To protect both the University and the company, licence agreements are kept confidential. This can also include information about a company’s development plans or commercial activities.
We’ll help you understand what’s confidential and what you can still share.
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Companies often want access to improvements to the technology so they can continue developing better products. The risk is that future ideas could be tied too closely to a single partner.
To avoid this, we limit what counts as an ‘improvement’ — typically to work by named individuals, within a defined time period, and within the scope of the original technology.
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Some companies ask to review papers before they’re published, to check for confidential or patentable information. Any delay is strictly limited (usually up to three months), so you can continue to publish your research without unnecessary restriction.
Open source software
Releasing software with an open source licence can be a powerful way to share knowledge and amplify your research. But for projects where substantial time, funding or technical development are required, the potential exclusivity that comes with commercial licensing helps partners justify the investment needed to turn early-stage research into market-ready products.
Deciding whether to release software under an open source licence or a commercial licence (with or without an academic use licence) can be tricky. We’ll help you consider your options and choose the right route for your research.
If you do want to pursue the open source route, there are certain approvals and criteria you must meet first. These are set out in the University’s policy, but include:
- Having the approval of your Head of Department
- Meeting the terms of any funding used to support the creation of the software
- Getting consent from any software authors outside of the University
Our Software Store
Our online portal gives academic and commercial users access to ‘click-to-licence’ intellectual property. It provides a streamlined way to make research tools available under the right terms — whether that’s widely used packages like the FMRIB Software Library (FSL) or newer emerging technologies.
Through the store, external users can obtain licences quickly and transparently, while researchers and departments benefit from a managed route for sharing, tracking and licensing their software.
