Research and development agreement

A research and development agreement establishes the terms between two partners who partner up to find and create new products. Each partner will know its obligations and duties.

You have to decide if your project is more a broader research project or if it will be a more specific development agreement. Both approaches come with different duties and obligations. No worries – we will assists you in finding out which type or mixed form suits you best.

One key difference is motivation – while of course both businesses and public institutions want to make money, public institutions often have an interesting in allowing public access to R&D results, to enable further innovation. Additionally, public institutions are often limited by law in their freedom to conclude contracts – they are operating within borders. Understanding these borders is often crucial for successful negotiations.

The most important point you have to agree on with your partner is the allocation of and usage rights to the intellectual property created in the R&D process. Next to the intellectual property, aligning on a fair and balanced remuneration set-up which aligns the parties interests is key. Also, you need to know, who has to do what during the agreement and what happens if there’s a disagreement.