Results, ownership and access rights

Results belong to the beneficiary that generates them. Where several partners generate something jointly and their contributions cannot be separated, it is jointly owned, and joint ownership without a written arrangement is a reliable source of later paralysis. The consortium agreement should settle it in advance.

ACCESS RIGHTS are the mechanism that makes collaboration work. Partners have rights to each other's results and background where these are needed to carry out the project (normally royalty-free) and rights for exploiting their own results afterwards, normally on fair and reasonable terms. What counts as fair and reasonable is negotiated, which is why it should be negotiated before anyone knows what the results are worth.

BACKGROUND is what each partner brought with it, and it must be listed. A partner that fails to exclude sensitive existing intellectual property can find it inside the access regime by default, which is a costly way to learn the value of an annex nobody wanted to write.

There is an obligation to EXPLOIT the results (to use them, licence them, commercialise them or make them available) and to report on how. Doing nothing with a funded result is a breach of the agreement, not merely a disappointment, and the granting authority can require dissemination if exploitation does not happen.

Transfers and exclusive licences to entities outside the eligible countries can be objected to by the granting authority where they would harm European interests or run against security conditions. For a start-up whose exit may involve a non-European acquirer, this is a clause worth reading before signing, not during due diligence.