The COA licensing process: How to prepare for success

Clinical Outcome Assessments (COAs) – measurements that describe or reflect how a person feels or functions – are the IP of their respective developers and are thus protected by national and international copyright laws unless otherwise indicated.

The copyright holder and/or distributor/licensing company manage the legal and administrative aspects of copyrights. They are the only entities that can grant the right to use a COA that is not in the public domain. A license for use provides access to the official COA original/source version and validated language versions as well as the appropriate scoring method and interpretation guidance. The license often also grants permission to develop any additional needed material (such as new translations) and to disseminate and publish study results in the scientific literature. Users who wish to modify the content or layout of the COA need to obtain express permission to do so during the licensing process.

In this whitepaper, we cover the prerequisites for controlled use of COAs and provide suggestions for streamlining the licensing process, which can be complex and typically involves multiple parties.

This whitepaper details:

• Copyright law 101
• Where to turn for permission
• Where to turn for scientific help
• An overview of the licensing process, including translation and digitization
• Timeline planning
• The most common pitfalls
• Best practices for success