Intellectual property

Our Intellectual Property (IP) team works with academics to exploit IP generated from research at UWE Bristol. The team will evaluate the best modes of exploiting IP for either commercial or not-for-profit purposes, for example, through licensing or spin-out company formation.

Intellectual property rights are a set of legal rights that can protect knowledge or ideas. The main IP rights are:

• copyright (including database rights)
• trade marks
• patents
• registered designs
• unregistered design rights

Know-how is also 'IP' and can be protected by confidentiality (non-disclosure) agreements. For more information, see the IP Tutor for universities by the UK Intellectual Property Office.

You may find the following documents useful:

• Routes to impact from intellectual property arising from UWE Bristol research (PDF)
• Commercialisation and patent process of UWE Bristol research (PDF)
• UWE Bristol’s Intellectual property and research: A guide for students and staff (PDF)
• UWE Bristol’s Intellectual property policy and regulations (PDF)
• Innovation Disclosure form (PDF)

More information is available for staff and postgraduate researchers on the University's intranet (access restricted to UWE Bristol staff and postgraduate researchers only).

UWE Bristol IP for licensing

We are currently reconfiguring our portfolio of IP in technology and other innovations that are available for licensing.

• A point-of-use device for the rapid detection of boar taint in pig meat (PDF)

Adoption of the best practices recommended in the spin-out review

UWE Bristol supports and follows the recommendations of the Independent Review of University Spin-out Companies.

To support our ongoing efforts in growing the University’s spin-out portfolio, we will ensure that:

• our spin-out pipeline processes are aligned with the best practice guidelines as presented in the Review as well as in the University Spinout Investment Terms (USIT) Guide
• our University and founder equity stakes are appropriate and use the recommendations as a baseline
• our spin-out processes are clearly communicated to all stakeholders in all disciplines, raising aware of spin-outs as an opportunity 
• spin-outs are always considered as an option for the exploitation of all university IP.

Why partner with UWE Bristol?

UWE Bristol has a diverse range of IP-based technologies in healthcare, robotics, engineering, creative and digital technologies. We have strong links with small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and large corporations in the UK and overseas that offer opportunities to commercialise IP.

Contact us

To find out more, please email us at IPteam@uwe.ac.uk.