Legal Support for the Creation of a Scientific Result: Issues of Choosing a Contractual Model

The purpose of this study is to identify the system of contracts regulating the process of introducing innovations into economic activity, as well as to determine the participants involved in innovation implementation; to identify the legal grounds for financing innovative activities, commissioning scientific research, and achieving scientific results; to compare similar contractual models mediating innovation activity and to reveal their differences; and to determine the legal fate of exclusive rights to the created scientific results. Research methods: general scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction); special legal methods: doctrinal (dogmatic) and comparative legal analysis. Scientific findings: based on the study of foreign experience, the authors conclude that the stimulation of innovative activity requires flexibility in legal regulation, grounded in granting the parties broad opportunities to independently determine the content of their legal relationships. Accordingly, the authors argue that ensuring the innovative development of a country requires adequate legal support through the careful selection and use of a system of contracts. In most cases, the implementation of an innovative product necessitates the conclusion of several contracts that are interconnected by their common purpose but are formally independent of one another. The elements of this contractual system are determined by the sources and methods of financing innovative activity, the expected scientific result, the significance of the personal qualities of the researcher in conducting research, and the need to acquire exclusive rights to the research results. At each stage of the innovation implementation process, various contractual models are possible, and the number of links within the contractual system may differ. The authors demonstrate the differences between contracts for the performance of research and development works (Ramp;D contracts) on the one hand and author’s commission contracts on the other, compare both models with the special legal regime of service (employee‑created) works produced within the framework of an employment relationship, and highlight the specific features of donation and grant agreements.