Consistent with the University of California, San Francisco’s (UCSF) mission of advancing health worldwide is the translation of scientific discoveries into new products and services (commercialization). The creation of new companies (start-ups) to facilitate commercialization has proven to be an effective strategy to bring these advances in health care to the community. UCSF licenses intellectual property rights to these start-ups, and in most cases, the start-up provides equity (company shares) to UCSF as partial consideration for these rights.

UCSF is supportive of its inventors and authors who seek to commercialize their inventions through the creation of start-up companies. However, there are state laws, as well as system wide (University of California) and campus policies within which all UCSF employees must operate. This policy document aims to synthesize these requirements into one document to inform our entrepreneurial community.