Under the stewardship of TenU, the USIT Guide has been launched last April 24. The guide offers a quick reference on best practice for structuring contested items, such as equity, royalties, and milestones, as well as distinct positions around sub-licensing, knowhow, royalties, and due diligence.
It draws on decades of experience from organisations that have completed hundreds of these deals across numerous industries—and makes the benefit of their experience available for all. The parties involved have helped found over 300 spin-outs in the last five years.
The USIT Guide aims to facilitate faster negotiations, to identify a landing zone for what a positive deal should look like and to demonstrate that there is a shared commitment across both the TTO and VC communities to work together to build businesses that can change the world. The Guide is life sciences focussed but the principles and insights apply to all sectors.
More about TenU
TenU is an international collaboration formed to capture effective practices in research commercialisation and share these with governments and higher education communities. Its members work together to increase the societal impact of research.
TenU members are the technology transfer offices of the University of Cambridge, Columbia University, University of Edinburgh, Imperial College London, KU Leuven, University of Manchester, MIT, University of Oxford, Stanford University, and UCL.