Hello Andrew,
I actually do work in a space that deals contracts do perform either research tasks or even with the later stages of the clinical trials and it is tough to get a contract pushed especially if it deals with the Intellectual Property of the company and making sure the contracted supplier agrees to the required terms. And what Dr. Simon and you mentioned is really the best scenario to help expedite the contracting portion. By working directly with the legal department, it helps to find what is preventing the contract to be signed and work with the supplier to find the median that both parties can agree to. I was working on a service agreement contract and when everything was close to being finalized and be sent out for signature, it turns out that the template itself was not accepted by supplier. So after months of back and forth discussion about what the contract in its new template, and how my company’s requirements needed to be added in order to use template, we connected with legal department and has helped to see the outstanding questions and next steps more clearly to satisfy both parties.

Hello Andrew

When I worked in industry and had trouble getting contracts signed and have input on everything, I would often request a meeting. It usually wasn't in person, and that wasn't necessary anyway. Typically, I would gather a lawyer from my group, my manager (if they were available- optional attendance), and the representative the opposing end who would be responsible for signing, as well as, anyone who they would like to extend the invitation to on their end. Typically, the lawyer, my manager, and myself were live in one room, while their representatives joined on the line, either by video call or telephone dial in. It would still take hours- one time, it took nearly 4 hours of negotiating and discussing back and forth but it was still faster than if we had discussion by e-mail. Other times, we would not be able to meet, whether it was for scheduling conflicts or preference, and we would typically try to use a system that had live editing from both ends with comments- similar to the way that google docs works and this helped speed things along as well.

-Michelle

Hi All,
I haven't particularly dealt with contract, but I have dealt with the contractors that have done work within the facility through the contracts and from my experience it has to be very detailed, because often times these contracts may be vague and interpreted differently, as a result delays may happens and multiple parties have to be involved to resolve issues.

Chris

In dealing with contracts, one issue that sometimes comes up especially when working with a company that is overseas is pay of currency. Contracts were written the amount that they would be paid in US dollars, but sometimes the company would want it written in their currency, such as Euros or Yen. That was a minor discrepancy that occurred from time to time. As Chris mentioned about contractors, I have also dealt with contractors working at our site and any time you asked them to work over time or any number above the regular 40hrs a work week, a special work order form would have to filled out so they would be billed for the extra hours they were working.

Hi Andrew,

Unfortunately, I do not have any experience in this area, but I do agree with Dr. Simon’s lecture on getting in touch directly with the legal department in order to expedite the process of signing contracts. The legal department will assist with the issue by looking closely into what is preventing the contract from being signed in a timely manner. Additionally, in order to satisfy both parties, I believe you should set up a meeting with the second person (and possibly their representative) who is supposed to sign the contract. By having the legal department and the second party present, this would allow for any unanswered questions to be addressed and back and forth discussions to be resolved in a conference room.

Currently i do not have any experience when it comes to the legal area. I agree with Dr. Simon's recommendation on organizing a plan when meeting with the legal department either in-house or with another institution. This type of planning will help prevent delays and also will help establish a good relationship and help with future needs.

Personally, I have not experienced working out a legal contract at work first hand. However, I was informed that our company had a major fall through with a legal contract with a warehouse that distributes our main products. The timeframe to finalize the contract had taken months because the legal department had to be involved. After the contract was completed, a month later our company was forced to break the contract. This is not a normal occurrence, but the warehouse was not prepared to take in our orders. They were not abiding to the requirements that our company had set; therefore, the legal team and managers decided to break the contract or else the company would lose so many customers and clients. The cost of breaking the contract was enormous. As a result, any future legal contracts that our company makes is highly scrutinized. Since I work with class II medical devices that are used internationally, we do have legal contracts such as C.R Bard. Trademark names and registered titles are stated all throughout our product documentation. So, any updates to product documentation such as instructions for use must be approved by our legal department.

Yes, I used to work in the contracts unit at Sloan Kettering. I worked on Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs), Confidentiality Agreements (CDAs), Data Transfer Agreements (DTAs) Collaboration Agreements with Industry, Sponsored Research Agreements (SRAs), and Service Agreements. I currently work in the licensing group where we evaluate invention disclosures and work with outside counsel on filling patents.

I would definitely introduce yourself to someone in the legal department or Technology Transfer Officer because depending on the volume of contracts and workload it may take weeks to months for a contract to be fully executed. I agree with Dr. Simon that you should take the time get to know the legal department because if they know you and you send them a contract or need a contract to be put in place, they are more apt to prioritize it and to communicate with you on the status of the contract.

Some helpful contract hints: If you ever come up with an invention make sure you disclose the invention to your tech transfer office, because it is first to file now. If you make a public disclosure (conference, publication, seminars with external parties, etc) you lose out on foreign patent rights, but in the U.S. you have a one-year grace period to still file. If think you have a novel idea/invention be sure to loop in your tech transfer office so they can make sure they file a patent before you make a public disclosure. They can also make sure they put in place a confidentiality agreement before you discuss with an external party like a company that you may want to collaborate with. If you decide to move forward and collaborate with the company, make sure a formal agreement like a collaboration agreement is in place that has the terms of what happens if Intellectual Property (IP) arises out that collaboration.

NJIT Department of Intellectual Property and Patents is where you can disclose an invention and see NJIT's Ip policy. https://www.njit.edu/research/department-intellectual-property-and-patents-0/

Contracts and Grants
https://www.njit.edu/research/researchers/

I have no experiencing dealing with legal contracts but at Edwards, there is someone from every department assigned to a project; quality, manufacturing, clinical, pre-clinical, technicians, quality, regulatory, marketing, all levels of management (typically below the V.P.), R&D engineers, Test Engineers, Sr. Engineers and someone from the legal department are well. The people assigned from each department is required to attend our weekly team meetings, which is a great way for us to ask questions we have directly to the person that knows the correct answers. The legal department comes to every one of our team meetings and is there when the engineering team has any updates or needs legal help or point of view on a decision. It is also a great way to make sure things that we need form the legal department is being completed by a set deadline. From my understanding, I don't believe that we have too many issues with legal as a company because of that fact that we involve someone throughout the whole project.