§ Sir Ivan LawrenceTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps he will take to ensure that the benefits of his Department's future research and development carried out by ADAS continue to be made available to the industry as a whole following privatisation. [10464]
§ Mr. BoswellWe are well aware of the need to ensure that Department-funded research results continue to be properly exploited to the benefit of the industry as a whole. Where existing intellectual property rights are sold with ADAS business, we will attach appropriate conditions which may include a requirement on the purchaser to grant non-exclusive licences to third parties to exploit the intellectual property. Future contracts with the privatised company will specify the arrangements for ownership of the intellectual property rights and the conditions attached to such ownership.