Assessment of the licensing and patenting practices of UK's leading medical research institutions

The request was partially successful.

Dear University of Reading,

The FOI request below is being filed on behalf of UAEM-UK. Please note that the answers to these questions will be used to determine the university’s score in the forthcoming Global Health Ranking of leading UK universities by Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) UK.

We encourage you to read this background briefing before compiling your response:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GMzH...

Thank you very much for your time & best wishes,
Sarai Keestra - Universities Allied for Essential Medicines UK

START FOI

For the purpose of clarity, please adhere to the following definitions when answering these questions:

Definitions

Low and middle income country: A country that is defined as ‘low’, ‘lower-middle’ and ‘upper-middle’ income by the World Bank for the year 2018. Income status defined by GNI per capita.
Source: World bank, available online [https://tinyurl.com/jr6s6fm]

Patent: A form of intellectual property (IP) rights protection, whereby a government grants to the inventor, the right to stop others from making, using or selling the product without their permission for a limited period.
Source: Upcouncil, available online [https://www.upcounsel.com/copyright-trad...

Licence: Contracts that transfer IP rights from the owner of the rights to a third party for use.
Source: Upcouncil, available online [https://www.upcounsel.com/copyright-trad...

Exclusive Licence: A licence that allows only the named licensee to exploit the relevant IP rights, the licensor is also excluded from exploiting these IP rights.
Source: TaylorWessing, available online [https://united-kingdom.taylorwessing.com...

Non-Exclusive Licence: A licence that grants any number of licensees to exploit the IP.
Source: TaylorWessing, available online [https://united-kingdom.taylorwessing.com...

Health Technology: ‘Health technology as defined by the WHO: “A health technology is the application of organized knowledge and skills in the form of devices, medicines, vaccines, procedures and systems developed to solve a health problem and improve quality of lives.’ Source: WHO, available online [http://www.who.int/health-technology-ass...

Q1. Has the university committed to licensing its medical discoveries in ways that promote access and affordability in Low- and Middle- Income Countries? If yes, please provide a link or PDF to the relevant policy document.

Q2. Please provide an Excel spreadsheet with headings as displayed below with all the health technologies LICENSED by the university in the past year AND specify which countries they were licensed in AND specify whether they are exclusive or non-exclusive licenses.

Health Technology Licensed | Country of Licensing | Type of License (Exclusive or Non-Exclusive)

Q3. Please provide an Excel spreadsheet with all the health technologies PATENTED by the university in the past year AND specify which countries they were patented in.

Q4.Has the university shared its best practices for promoting access to medicines through non-exclusive licensing by carrying out any of the following activities?
- Contributed sample clauses to the AUTM Global Health Toolkit
- Published an article, guidance, or other literature on access licensing practices
- Formally presented on access licensing practices at an academic or professional event, or at another university
- Informally shared or discussed access licensing practices with administrators at other universities
- Other
- None
(Tick as appropriate)

Q5. What actions has the technology transfer office (TTO) undertaken in the past year to improve access to the technologies they license in low- and middle-income settings?

END FOI

Yours faithfully,

Sarai Keestra

IMPS, University of Reading

Dear Ms Keestra,

This is to acknowledge receipt of your request for information below and to let you know it is being processed.

We'll get back to you as soon as we can, but in any case within 20 working days from 09/10/2018.

In the meantime, if you wish to add any further details or check on progress, please reply to this message, quoting IMPS reference number - IMPS#02274.

Yours sincerely,

Sinead Latham

Information Management & Policy Services (IMPS), University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, RG6 6AH
t: +44 (0)118 378 8981 www.reading.ac.uk/foia

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IMPS, University of Reading

Apologies, correction below to the date of receipt - 10/10/2018.

Kind regards,

Sinead

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IMPS, University of Reading

Request on hold – pending clarification. 
 
Dear Ms Keestra,
 
We would like to request some clarification to your above mentioned FOI.
 
The suggested "background reading" link to Google Documents does not work
and as such we are unable to read any documentation.
 
"We encourage you to read this background briefing before compiling your
response:
[1]https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GMzH...
 
 
As such we request that you send over the documents in the body of the
email in order for us to respond to your request.
 
Your request is on pending receipt of the documentation.
 
Please be aware that if compliance with your request would be estimated to
exceed the appropriate costs limit established by section 12 of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000, we may not be able to determine whether
we hold the requested information.
 
 
Regards,
 
Sinead Latham
 
Information Compliance Officer
Information Management & Policy Services (IMPS), University of Reading,
Whiteknights, Reading, RG6 6AH
t: +44 (0)118 378 8981     [2]www.reading.ac.uk/internal/imps
 
 

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Dear IMPS,

Please accept my sincerest apologies for the broken link. Hopefully this new link to the background briefing works?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GMzH...
Thank you very much and I am looking forward to your response,

Sarai Keestra

IMPS, University of Reading

Dear Sarai,

Thank you for providing the link to the document below - I can confirm this works and I can access the document.

Your request is now off-hold and we will get back to you as soon as we can but in any case within 20 working days from the date you submitted the FOI.

Kind regards,

Sinead

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IMPS, University of Reading

Dear Ms Keestra,
 
We have completed the compilation of information in response to your
request.
 
We can confirm that we do hold some information of the description
specified in your request. Our responses are given below each limb of your
request below.
 
We are required to include details of our complaints procedures, including
your rights to apply to the Information Commissioner.  The procedure is
detailed in our Freedom of Information and Environmental Information
Regulations policy on the web at
[1]www.reading.ac.uk/freedom-of-information-policy
 
If we are unable to resolve any complaint, you can complain to the
Information Commissioner, the independent body who oversees the access to
information regimes:
 
Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
 
Email: [2][email address]
 
 
 
Yours sincerely, 
 
Sinead Latham
Information Compliance Officer
 
Information Management & Policy Services (IMPS), University of Reading,
Whiteknights, Reading, RG6 6AH
[3][University of Reading request email]    t: +44 (0)118 378 8981   
[4]www.reading.ac.uk/foia
 

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