License a Harvard Innovation

Access Harvard Innovations for Real-World Impact

Harvard’s research enterprise generates a steady pipeline of innovations. Our business development and licensing teams can help you quickly identify relevant technologies, understand their technical and IP positions, and structure agreements that align with your commercialization strategy and timelines.

Explore Available Technologies

Sample Licenses & Agreements

ExpressPath license  

Harvard’s ExpressPath license is a standardized, startup-friendly license with pre-set business terms to provide a faster, simpler way for Harvard innovators to launch startups. The ExpressPath license is built to provide a quicker, streamlined process, lower upfront cost, with clear and consistent financial terms to give founders and investors predictable expectations. Because different technologies have different commercialization paths, the Harvard ExpressPath is offered in three license categories:

Engineering and Tech ExpressPath License
Medical Devices ExpressPath License
Software ExpressPath License

Harvard’s ExpressPath license process

Basic exclusive license

Harvard’s basic exclusive license, intended for licensing situations where a more customized approach is warranted, grants a single licensee the exclusive right to develop and commercialize a specific Harvard technology within defined fields, financial considerations, and diligence obligations. Harvard retains ownership of the underlying intellectual property.

Sample License Agreement With Exclusive Patent Rights

Nonexclusive license

Harvard’s non-exclusive license grants a licensee to develop and commercialize a specific Harvard technology while permitting Harvard to grant similar rights to other licensees. The technology is licensed within defined fields, financial considerations, and diligence obligations. Harvard retains ownership of the underlying intellectual property.

Sample Nonexclusive License (for patent rights)

Materials licenses

Harvard offers certain materials (usually biological research materials) for commercial use on a non-exclusive basis. Some materials, such as mice, are typically offered on a flat-fee basis or with fixed yearly payments; others, such as hybridoma cell lines, include royalty-based payments as well. 

Sample Materials License – Royalty-based
Sample Materials License – Flat-fee-based

MTA process

Basic option agreement

Harvard also offers option agreements to companies that are considering licensing a Harvard technology. An option agreement permits a company to “hold” a technology for a short period of time, during which the company can further evaluate its potential, or raise funding for product development, without committing itself or Harvard to the obligations of a license agreement. Options are usually six months to one year in duration and typically require both an upfront fee and patent prosecution reimbursement during the option term.

Basic Option Agreement 

A note on global access—Development of technologies borne from Harvard patent rights may lead to licensed products that could result in significant public health benefits in developing countries. Harvard has made a commitment, through its participation in the organization Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, to promote affordable access to such products in developing countries. To meet that commitment, we may require provisions similar to those given in the link below in exclusive licenses of such potentially impactful technology.

Global Access Language

A note on third-party proposed products—In the case of an exclusive license granted in all or many fields, the licensee may initially be focused on a limited number of products or uses for the licensed technology. To support Harvard’s mission to promote the public good by commercializing Harvard-owned technology as broadly as possible, Harvard may include provisions similar to those given in the link below to encourage a licensee to develop products proposed by third parties, or to sublicense the licensee’s rights in the Harvard patent rights to such a third party, to allow the development and commercialization of additional products.

Third-party Proposed Products Language 

Responsible licensing practices

In summer 2006, Harvard University joined 11 other U.S. institutions in crafting a set of considerations intended to guide the thoughtful and effective licensing of technologies to best serve the public interest. Harvard endorsed the resulting document, Nine Points to Consider in Licensing University Technology, which has now been adopted as a set of best practices by at least 113 institutions worldwide.

Expanding on the last of the “Nine Points,” which aims to ensure that academic medical innovations benefit underserved populations, Harvard OTD and our counterpart office at Yale then led the way in developing a Statement of Principles and Strategies for the Equitable Dissemination of Medical Technologies, which was initially endorsed by four other universities and the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM). The “SPS,” as it is known, has since been endorsed by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and numerous academic research institutions around the world.