Intellectual Property

VectorBuilder is a contract manufacturer that creates custom gene delivery vectors as specified by its customers. The manufacturing of such vectors does not imply that VectorBuilder owns any intellectual property rights to the vectors or can transfer said rights to its customers. Instead, we consider that the customers own the designs and all the intellectual property rights associated with their custom-built vectors, except when the vectors contain specific intellectual properties owned by VectorBuilder or third parties as described below.

• Vectors containing any customer-specified sequences not available as standard components on VectorBuilder’s online vector design platform will not be shared with any third party unless instructed by the customer.
• Any intellectual property, such as data, discoveries, and inventions generated by the customer utilizing vectors or reagents provided by VectorBuilder, belongs entirely to the customer unless stipulated differently in the service agreement.
• Vectors designed on VectorBuilder’s online platform and consisting entirely of standard components available on the platform are considered as belonging to VectorBuilder’s design repertoire and may be made available to any customer needing such designs (e.g., a vector designed with one of VectorBuilder’s backbones containing one of VectorBuilder’s popular promoters driving a RefSeq gene).
• VectorBuilder may collect, analyze, and publish statistical properties of the vectors designed on VectorBuilder, constructed by VectorBuilder, or deposited to VectorBuilder, such as categories of vectors encountered (e.g., percentage of lentiviral vectors among all the vectors created), error rates in vector sequences, feedback on customer satisfaction, etc. Such information will be sanitized to completely remove any identifying information and proprietary properties of individual vectors and the customers they belong to. All customer information, such as customer identity, experimental design, and order history, is kept strictly confidential.
• For products (including custom-made ones) purchased from VectorBuilder, including but not limited to vectors, viruses, libraries, stable cell lines, and LNPs manufactured and sold by VectorBuilder, customers agree not to resell them in any form, including in their original form, as copies, as aliquots, or in repackaged form, to any third party, unless stipulated differently in a separate agreement with VectorBuilder.
• VectorBuilder owns the intellectual properties relating to certain proprietary vector systems, sequences (nucleic acid and amino acid), cell lines, reagents, formulations, and manufacturing and analytical methodologies, including but not limited to the MiniVec™ system, MuteFree™ AAV system, novel promoter sequences, novel AAV capsid sequences, codon-optimized gene sequences, proprietary virus packaging plasmids (e.g., LentiBuilder™ system), LNPs with VectorBuilder’s proprietary formulation, the BACYAC system, and a number of engineered cell lines. Their use may be subject to restrictions and may require separate licenses from VectorBuilder.
• Some vector components may involve third-party intellectual property. VectorBuilder may provide publicly available sequence information of such components to its users solely as a reference for the users' convenience. Utilization of such components in custom-built vectors is done solely at the customer's discretion and liability. By purchasing vectors containing such components from VectorBuilder, the customers acknowledge that they have obtained all the necessary intellectual property licenses, including the rights to be able to contract VectorBuilder to manufacture the vectors.
• The Tet-inducible system is off-patent except for Tet3G. VectorBuilder has a license from TET Systems to create vectors containing the patented Tet3G sequences. Academic research institutions are granted an automatic license with the purchase of such vectors for internal academic research. Commercial users or academic users sponsored by for-profit organizations need a license from TET Systems in order to use such vectors.