Governor signs HB2272, intellectual property protections

Many companies had been avoiding partnerships with Arizona’s public research institutions for fear of having their research compromised by public information requests and other threats to private investment.

Yesterday afternoon, Governor Jan Brewer signed HB 2272 into law. Before being signed by the Governor, the bill made its way through the legislature with nearly unanimous support. The main purpose of the bill was to protect the ownership of intellectual property and research generated in private sector partnerships that state universities engage in every year.

The main provisions of the bill:

  • Expand the list of items that are not subject to public records laws to include information or intellectual property that is composed of unpublished research data, manuscripts, preliminary analyses, drafts of scientific papers, plans for future research and prepublication peer reviews.
  • Add that information not available to the general public in addition to intellectual property is included in the exemptions related to public records.
  • Specify that this statute, public records exemptions, does not affect the issues to be decided between a university and a contracting party including publication of data and discoveries.