Patents and employee inventions
When you sign the employment contract, as a university professor at the University of Vienna you grant all ownership and intellectual property rights of the results of work within the scope of your official duties to the University of Vienna, whilst at the same time the University of Vienna is granting unlimited, exclusive and irrevocable rights in terms of duration, territory and content, should a title transfer not be legally possible.
Exceptions:
• publication rights for print publication of academic papers
• assessments on the basis of ad personam third-party research commissions
You must notify the Rector immediately of a potential invention. Following the notification, the University has three months to evaluate the invention and to decide whether it chooses to validate its claim on it. If the invention is not claimed by the University within this period, you will have the property rights as the originator and you may promote the invention in any way you see fit.
Please note that inventions created in connection with externally financed research projects are also always notifiable in order to ensure that the University can fulfil its contractual duties and cede any rights to third parties as necessary.
More detailed information