Negotiation Principles

Innovation Partnerships’ deal-making objective is to win the relationship – not the negotiation. Accordingly, we pledge to:

1. Be nimble to accommodate requests for meetings or calls.
We understand that everyone is busy so we will work to move meetings to make ourselves available for inventors, entrepreneurs, and investors seeking to work with us.

2. Be extremely responsive to emails and redlines.
While we hope to avoid the need to exchange extensive redlines, we will work lightning fast so that the startup team is not waiting for our response.

3. Patiently and effectively explain and educate others about our internal sensitivities and our rationale for various positions.
While we strive to be highly flexible, there are some provisions that are required (for example, by federal laws like the Bayh-Dole Act). In these situations we are happy to explain the rationale behind the provision.

4. Be cordial, enthusiastic, and helpful in all communications.
We understand that a startup license is the beginning to an ongoing relationship. We want you to be eager to continue to work with us.

5. Have a proactive “can do” attitude.
For example, there are numerous regulatory requirements that impact the licensing of academic innovations. We didn’t make the rules, and might not be able to change them. However, we understand those regulations and it’s part of our job to help inventors, entrepreneurs, and investors navigate the relevant regulations.

6. Keep all involved parties updated on the deal-making progress.
We understand that no one wants surprises so we will keep all involved parties informed on licensing discussions.

7. Whenever possible we will seek to standardize and streamline our documentation.
We understand that incorporation and early-stage financing documents have become heavily standardized. We want to create that same transparency and ease wherever possible for licensing documents.