You own it

You own the actual right to the intangible assets you create, such as inventions, reports, product designs, graphic interfaces and software. When you collaborate with companies or other organisations, you need to agree in contracts with them early on about how the intangible assets that come into or are created in the project shall be handled. Among other things, you need to agree on when you may publish information that concerns patentable inventions, which companies often want to keep secret until the patent application has been filed or even published.

Innovation support

Most students do not have enough knowledge to draft good agreements and contracts on their own and need help. Your university will have an organisation to provide such support. At more than ten universities, there are special innovation offices with experts in these issues and at nearly 20 universities, there are holding companies that have the possibility of supporting with early financing and start-up activities. At some universities, the innovation support is gathered in a collaboration function.