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Panoramic view on the North Campus © Jürgen Huhn​/​TU Dortmund
NEW STANDARD FOR IP TRANSFER

More Start-ups – and Faster

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Photo: Graphic illustration on intellectual property featuring symbols for ideas, protection, and law. © wladimir1804​/​stock.adobe.com
TU Dortmund University is establishing a new standard for the transfer of intellectual property rights to new companies.
The creation of university start-ups is playing an increasingly important role and contributing substantively to the transformation of our economy. So far, one of the greatest challenges facing above all tech-driven start-ups has been the transfer of intellectual property (IP) from the respective university to the new company. To tackle this, a team of experts at TU Dortmund University with start-up experience has developed a new standard for IP transfer that from now on regulates the transfer of IP rights in a start-up’s different development phases in a sound and reliable way.

The Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation (EFI), a body that advises Germany’s Federal Government, highlights in its 2026 annual report that IP transfer constitutes a critical bottleneck in the start-up process. If a start-up’s intellectual property rights are not protected, it does not have the foundation required for developing a viable business model and raising external capital. Complex contractual models and partly diverging expectations between the university and the start-up entrepreneur often lead to lengthy negotiations. On average, the transfer of such rights currently takes around 18 months – and in individual cases far longer. In the dynamic international start-up landscape, this represents a significant competitive disadvantage.

As Dr. Ronald Kriedel from the Center for Entrepreneurship and Transfer (CET) at TU Dortmund University underlines: “Fundamental change will only happen if we choose an approach that no longer endeavors to minimize or exclude all the possible risks associated with the transfer of rights but instead recognizes and promotes the opportunities. The new standard is a real breakthrough that will not only help us to transpose scientific developments and findings to start-ups more quickly and effectively but also contribute to their commercial success.”

Creating legal certainty through lean processes

Ina Brandes, Minister for Culture and Science, says: “North Rhine-Westphalia’s science and research landscape offers optimum conditions for spin-offs and start-ups: a density of universities and research institutions unique in Europe and strong industrial partners. I am convinced that we can leverage this asset even more effectively. To do so, we need standardized processes with clear and simple rules that quickly create legal certainty and are thus attractive to external investors.”

With this in mind, the team at TU Dortmund University has developed a new standard for IP transfer. It establishes a lean, transparent and at the same time flexible process that is customized to the specific start-up project. A watertight and clearly structured contract of just a few pages regulates the transfer of IP rights in a start-up’s different development phases. In the future, the entire negotiation process should be completed within three months at most. Thanks to protected intellectual property rights, start-ups will become attractive to external investors more quickly.

Proven in practice

The new IP transfer standard noticeably simplifies and accelerates the entire start-up process. It is a key component in increasing the number of tech-driven start-ups over the longer term and has already been proven in practice: Simplyfined, a start-up from TU Dortmund University, has successfully concluded the new agreement on the transfer of intellectual property rights. The young company has filed a patent for an innovative process for developing bio-based raw materials from vegetable oils as an alternative to petroleum for the chemical industry. The raw materials are therefore more sustainable and more environmentally friendly and will, in the long term, contribute substantially to safeguarding the independence of Germany’s chemical industry.

Dr. Thomas Seidensticker, one of Simplyfined’s founders, explains: “We are grateful that TU Dortmund University has embarked on this journey with us to make IP transfer a lot clearer and more efficient, also for future spin-offs from deep-tech start-ups. The people responsible at TU Dortmund University have thoroughly reworked the previous process, and the outcome is a framework that will benefit us as a start-up.”

In the future, universities and start-ups beyond the City of Dortmund could also benefit from the contractual model developed by the team. At the Ruhr Innovation Lab run jointly by TU Dortmund University and Ruhr University Bochum too, the transfer of intellectual property rights is very important for transposing knowledge from the universities into start-ups and in this way also into the economy and society.

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