Turning university research into a company is rarely as simple as finding a promising technology and assembling a founding team.
Before a UBC researcher can commercialize an invention developed at the university, the new company needs the rights to use that intellectual property. Negotiating those rights can take months, cost thousands of dollars, and create uncertainty at a point when a startup has little time or money to spare.
Innovation UBC is trying to make that process easier.
The university has updated its Express Licence Agreement, a standardized contract that allows eligible UBC spin-offs to secure exclusive worldwide rights to commercialize and sublicense university technology without negotiating a custom agreement from scratch.
The agreement was introduced in April 2025 and refreshed in June 2026 following feedback from investors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and others involved in building research-driven companies.
“The Express License lets founders spend less time negotiating and more time building,” said Brett Sharp, Associate Director of Technology Transfer at Innovation UBC.
According to Sharp, the standardized approach has already reduced legal costs and licensing timelines while helping contribute to a record year for the creation of UBC spin-offs.
The idea is straightforward: founders can accept a set of transparent, predetermined terms that have already been reviewed by people familiar with university technology deals. UBC retains the right to use the technology for research and teaching, while the company receives the commercial rights it needs to begin building a business around it.
That certainty can matter when a young company is speaking with investors. Rather than entering due diligence with an unfinished intellectual property agreement, founders can show potential backers exactly what rights the company holds and what obligations come with them.
The licence also addresses what happens when the underlying research continues to evolve. Spin-offs can receive access to certain improvements developed at UBC by the original researchers, typically during the first five years of the agreement. Technology developed independently by the startup after signing belongs to the company.
UBC continues to own and manage the original patents, covering the first $20,000 in patent expenses. The spin-off is responsible for costs above that threshold and may eventually assume management of the patent portfolio with the university’s approval.
In exchange for the licence, UBC and any inventors who are not founders collectively receive a five percent founding equity stake. That stake is protected from dilution until the company raises $2 million in equity or records $2 million in cumulative net sales and sublicensing revenue.
The agreement also includes royalties on sales, annual licence fees that increase as the company matures, and a tiered system for sharing sublicensing revenue with UBC.
Some of the latest changes are intended to give startups more flexibility as they grow. Companies are no longer limited by a previous market-capitalization requirement when choosing sublicensing partners. Instead, potential partners are assessed on whether they have the financial and technical ability to commercialize the technology.
The licence can also remain in place following an acquisition or merger, provided the buyer meets UBC’s requirements and accepts the existing terms. Changes to the university’s termination rights give companies more room to restructure during periods of financial difficulty without automatically losing access to the intellectual property on which the business was built.
The faster process does not eliminate a founder’s responsibilities. Companies must secure adequate capitalization within 24 months, appoint an independent director within the first year and a second within three years, and make reasonable efforts to bring the technology to market.
But by establishing those expectations from the beginning, UBC is removing some of the uncertainty that can slow a spin-off before it has had a chance to get started.
For researchers trying to move a discovery beyond the lab, the value of the Express Licence may be less about receiving a better deal than receiving a clear one—and getting back to building the company.
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