Please take a look at our FAQs below. If you can't find your answer here, please contact us and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

• Can I find more information about intellectual property and patents on the web?

  

  Intellectual Property and patent information

  UK Intellectual Property Office
  European Patent Office
  United States Patent and Trademark Office

  World Intellectual Porperty Organisation

  
  

  Patent searches

  Espacenet

  Patent Lens

  Fresh Patents

• What is CUTS?

  

  CUTS stands for Cambridge University Technical Services Limited. CUTS is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Cambridge Enterprise Limited and deals solely with consultancy contracts. It has no employees, and is administered by the staff of Cambridge Enterprise. University employees can work as consultants through CUTS. This has a number of benefits, including that by using CUTS the academic consultant may benefit from the University's professional indemnity and liability insurance policies. Prior to the incorporation of Cambridge Enterprise, CUTS was a trading company wholly owned by the University of Cambridge, acting as a vehicle for the University's commercial activities related to intellectual property.For further information on consultancy and the range of services provided please see the Consultancy Services section.

• What is intellectual property, IP and IPR?

  

  Intellectual Property (IP) encompasses the expression of ideas, information and knowledge. At the University of Cambridge this is governed by the University IPR Policy. In the University context IP can be considered as the outcome of research projects, collaborations, consultancies and other activities. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are the legal rights protecting the owners of IP. The first owner of IP is normally either the person who invents, authors or designs the IP, or his/her employer (depending on the contractual arrangements governing his/her work). Commercial exploitation of the IP can occur directly by the owner of the IP, or by licensing the IP to be used by other companies. The most common types of IPR are confidential information, copyright, patents, trademarks and design rights.

  For further information about IP and IPR see the links below.

• Where can I find out more about innovation activity in Cambridge?

  

  The Cambridge Technopole Group is an informal network of business support organisations operating in the Greater Cambridge sub-region. The overall mission of the Group is to improve the range and quality of the business support services available in the sub-region, particularly for companies based on technology.

  For further information on the Cambridge Technopole please visit www.cambridgetechnopole.org.uk

• Who owns University of Cambridge Intellectual Property?

  

  On 13 December 2005 members of the University of Cambridge voted on a new Intellectual Property Rights policy. This policy provides that in the first instance the University owns inventions made during the course of Research.

  The University’s revenue sharing policy is available from the Intellectual Property Rights Policy(IPR Policy) page either as the full IPR Policy or as an IPR Policy summary.