Intellectual Property & Trademark Notices

1. Overview

This Intellectual Property and Trademark Notices page describes the ownership, use rights, and restrictions applicable to the intellectual property associated with Helix BioMedical's brand, services, educational programs, and research platforms. It also provides required notices regarding third-party trademarks, open-source software, and licensed data sources that are used in connection with Helix BioMedical's operations and student programs. Finally, it describes the rights of students and research participants with respect to intellectual property they develop during their engagement with Helix BioMedical.

Helix BioMedical operates at the intersection of healthcare delivery, life sciences education, and cutting-edge computational biology research. This means the organization draws on a rich ecosystem of intellectual property contributed by leading research institutions, universities, and open-source communities. We are committed to respecting the intellectual property rights of all contributors to this ecosystem and to providing transparent disclosure of the third-party IP upon which our programs depend.

This page should be read in conjunction with the Genetic Engineering and Synthetic Biology Ethics Policy at /legal/genetic-engineering-ethics and the Non-Accredited Education Disclosure at /legal/education-disclosure. Questions about specific intellectual property matters may be directed to [email protected].

2. Helix BioMedical Trademarks

The name "Helix BioMedical," the Helix BioMedical logo, the double-helix motif used in organizational branding, the taglines and slogans associated with Helix BioMedical's services, and the names of proprietary Helix BioMedical programs and platforms are trademarks or service marks of Helix BioMedical, a Wyoming nonprofit corporation operating under Section 508(c)(1)(a) of the Internal Revenue Code. These marks are protected under applicable federal and state trademark law and may not be used without the express written permission of the organization.

Specifically prohibited without written authorization are: use of the Helix BioMedical name or logo in any commercial advertising or promotional material; use of the organization's name or logo in a manner that implies endorsement, sponsorship, or affiliation with any product, service, organization, or individual; incorporation of the Helix BioMedical name into the name of any other organization, program, or service; and reproduction of organizational branding elements in print, digital, or physical form for distribution without prior approval.

Nominative fair use of the Helix BioMedical name -- that is, accurate, factual references to the organization by name for purposes of identification, commentary, journalism, or academic citation -- is permitted without prior authorization, provided such use does not suggest endorsement, does not use the organization's stylized logo or visual branding, and accurately represents the organization's nature and activities.

Graduates and current students may, with accurate and non-misleading representation, state that they have completed or are enrolled in programs offered by Helix BioMedical. Such statements must not imply that Helix BioMedical programs confer accredited academic credentials, professional licenses, or endorsements of any kind beyond what is described in the Non-Accredited Education Disclosure.

3. Third-Party Trademark Notices

Helix BioMedical's educational and research programs involve the use, discussion, and instruction of technologies and tools that are associated with proprietary trademarks and intellectual property held by third parties. The following notices are provided to acknowledge those rights. Mention of these technologies in Helix BioMedical's educational materials, website, or research programs does not imply any affiliation, partnership, sponsorship, or endorsement by the respective rights holders unless explicitly stated.

CRISPR and Cas9 Technology

CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) and CRISPR/Cas9 technology are associated with a complex landscape of foundational patents held by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley, among other institutions and licensees. The term "CRISPR" is a scientific descriptor in widespread use in the research community and is not a registered trademark. However, specific CRISPR-based therapeutic platforms, delivery systems, and diagnostic applications may be subject to proprietary rights. Helix BioMedical uses CRISPR technology for educational and non-commercial research purposes only and does not manufacture, commercialize, or sublicense CRISPR-based products or methods covered by third-party patents without appropriate licensing.

OpenCRISPR (Profluent AI)

OpenCRISPR is a family of AI-generated CRISPR-like proteins developed and released by Profluent AI (Profluent Bio, Inc.). Profluent has released certain OpenCRISPR models under open-access terms for research use, with details available at profluent.bio. "OpenCRISPR" is associated with Profluent AI's brand. Helix BioMedical's use of OpenCRISPR models in its research pipeline is subject to the terms of Profluent's applicable license. Researchers using OpenCRISPR tools through Helix BioMedical are responsible for reviewing and complying with Profluent's terms of use, which may include attribution requirements and restrictions on commercial application.

AlphaFold (Google DeepMind)

AlphaFold is an AI system developed by Google DeepMind that predicts protein three-dimensional structure from amino acid sequences. "AlphaFold" is a trademark associated with Google DeepMind. The AlphaFold Protein Structure Database, operated in partnership with EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), provides free access to protein structure predictions for the scientific community. Use of AlphaFold predictions through Helix BioMedical's research pipeline is subject to the AlphaFold Terms of Use published by DeepMind and EMBL-EBI, which permit free use for non-commercial research and educational purposes. Commercial applications of AlphaFold predictions may require additional licensing; researchers planning commercial applications should review DeepMind's current licensing terms.

ESM-2 (Meta AI)

ESM-2 (Evolutionary Scale Modeling) is a protein language model developed by Meta AI Research (Meta Platforms, Inc.). ESM-2 and the related ESMFold structure prediction tool are associated with Meta AI's research efforts in computational biology. Meta has made ESM-2 model weights available under open-source licenses through platforms such as Hugging Face, subject to Meta's model license terms. "Meta" and "Meta AI" are trademarks of Meta Platforms, Inc. Use of ESM-2 models in Helix BioMedical's computational pipeline is subject to Meta's applicable model license, which permits research and educational use with appropriate attribution.

BoltzGen and Boltz-1

Boltz-1 is an open-source biomolecular structure prediction model developed by MIT researchers, made available to the research community as a freely accessible alternative to proprietary structure prediction tools. BoltzGen and related generative biomolecular design tools used in Helix BioMedical's pipeline are subject to the open-source licenses under which they are distributed. Researchers should review the applicable license terms before incorporating outputs into work intended for commercial application or publication.

PyTorch (Meta AI)

PyTorch is an open-source machine learning framework developed by Meta AI Research and maintained by the Linux Foundation under a BSD-style license. "PyTorch" is a registered trademark of The Linux Foundation. Helix BioMedical uses PyTorch as a core component of its GPU-accelerated computational pipeline for protein engineering and gene editing tool development. Use of PyTorch is subject to the BSD 3-Clause License. The full license text is available at pytorch.org/LICENSE.

iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine Foundation)

iGEM is a registered trademark of the iGEM Foundation, an independent non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of synthetic biology education and competition. References to iGEM in Helix BioMedical's educational materials are for informational purposes, describing the broader synthetic biology community and competition ecosystem. Helix BioMedical is not an official iGEM affiliate or partner unless explicitly stated. The iGEM Parts Registry and associated biological parts are subject to iGEM's open-source biology licensing framework.

Other Referenced Technologies

Helix BioMedical's educational materials and research platform may reference or incorporate tools including but not limited to: Rosetta (developed by the Rosetta Commons, a consortium of academic institutions); BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool, NCBI/NIH); Biopython (Python Software Foundation license); SciPy, NumPy, and pandas (BSD licenses); Jupyter (BSD license); Docker (Apache 2.0 license); and various bioinformatics databases maintained by NCBI, UniProt, and EMBL-EBI. All such tools are used in accordance with their respective license terms. Full attribution and license information for all software dependencies is maintained in the organization's software documentation and is available upon request.

4. Student and Researcher Intellectual Property Rights

The intellectual property rights of students and research participants who contribute creative, inventive, or research work through Helix BioMedical programs are an important and sensitive area. Helix BioMedical is committed to fair, transparent IP arrangements that respect student contributions while supporting the organization's mission-driven research activities. The following provisions govern IP ownership for work developed in connection with Helix BioMedical programs.

Work developed independently. Intellectual property developed by a student entirely on their own time, using their own resources, without use of Helix BioMedical facilities, equipment, reagents, computational resources, data, or confidential information, belongs solely to the student. Helix BioMedical claims no rights to independently developed student work. Students who wish to confirm that a project they are developing independently falls outside the scope of Helix BioMedical's IP claims may request a written determination from the program director.

Work developed using Helix BioMedical resources. Intellectual property -- including research data, biological constructs, computational models, software tools, protocols, and written works -- developed by a student using Helix BioMedical facilities, equipment, biological materials, computational infrastructure, proprietary datasets, or confidential organizational information is subject to joint ownership provisions. The default arrangement is that such work is owned jointly by the student and Helix BioMedical, with each party holding a non-exclusive license to use the jointly owned IP for non-commercial purposes.

Sponsored research. Where a student's research is conducted under a specific research project funded by or conducted on behalf of Helix BioMedical -- for example, as part of a formal research stipend, research assistant role, or organizational research grant -- all resulting IP is assigned to Helix BioMedical as a work product of the sponsoring arrangement, unless a separate written IP agreement specifying different terms has been executed before the research begins. Students entering sponsored research arrangements should review and negotiate their IP agreements before beginning work.

Publication rights. Students retain the right to publish, present, and publicly discuss their research findings, subject to: (a) a reasonable advance review period of no less than 30 days and no more than 90 days to allow Helix BioMedical to file patent applications for patentable discoveries before public disclosure; (b) compliance with confidentiality obligations regarding proprietary organizational information; and (c) compliance with the biosecurity review process described in the Genetic Engineering Ethics Policy for publications that may have dual-use implications. Helix BioMedical will not unreasonably withhold or delay approval of student publications beyond the review period described above.

5. Open-Source Software Attributions

Helix BioMedical's website, patient portal, educational platform, and research pipeline are built on a foundation of open-source software. We are grateful to the global open-source community whose contributions make tools of this quality freely available. The following attributions acknowledge the major open-source components used in Helix BioMedical's digital infrastructure. Full license texts for all components are maintained in the project repositories and are available upon request.

The Helix BioMedical website and patient-facing applications are built using Next.js (MIT License, Vercel, Inc.) and React (MIT License, Meta Platforms, Inc.). Styling is implemented using Tailwind CSS (MIT License, Tailwind Labs, Inc.). Backend services use Node.js (MIT License, OpenJS Foundation). Database services are provided through Supabase (Apache 2.0 License, Supabase Inc.), which itself builds on PostgreSQL (PostgreSQL License, PostgreSQL Global Development Group). Authentication is implemented using industry-standard open protocols.

The research pipeline runs on Python (Python Software Foundation License) and incorporates BioPython (BSD License), NumPy (BSD License), SciPy (BSD License), pandas (BSD License), Matplotlib (PSF-based License), Scikit-learn (BSD License), PyTorch (BSD License), and Hugging Face Transformers (Apache 2.0 License). Each of these libraries is used in accordance with its respective open-source license. Where licenses require attribution or reproduction of license notices, such requirements are satisfied in the pipeline's documentation and dependency manifests.

Helix BioMedical contributes to the open-source ecosystem where practicable. Internal tools, analysis scripts, and educational materials that are developed by organizational staff or under organizationally sponsored research programs may be released under open-source licenses at the organization's discretion. Students who develop open-source contributions in connection with Helix BioMedical programs are encouraged to discuss contribution and release plans with program administration in advance, particularly for contributions that involve jointly owned IP as described in Section 4.

6. Creative Commons and Data Licensing

Educational materials, training documents, instructional videos, written curricula, and non-proprietary research documentation produced by Helix BioMedical for distribution to students are, unless otherwise marked, released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). Under this license, recipients are free to share and adapt the materials for non-commercial purposes, provided they give appropriate credit to Helix BioMedical, indicate if changes were made, and do not use the materials for commercial purposes.

Research data and datasets generated by Helix BioMedical's programs and released for public access are released under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0 1.0) public domain dedication where applicable law permits and where data does not contain patient health information or other information subject to privacy protections. CC0 allows maximum reuse and interoperability with other research datasets. Where datasets contain information that requires attribution or other conditions for responsible reuse -- particularly datasets with potential dual-use implications -- a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) will be used instead, to ensure that downstream users are aware of the data's origin and context.

Patient health information collected in connection with Helix BioMedical's medical services is not publicly released and is not subject to Creative Commons licensing. Such data is governed by HIPAA and described in the organization's Privacy Policy and HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices available at /legal/privacy and /legal/hipaa. Research use of de-identified patient data requires a formal data use agreement and compliance with the human subjects protections described in the Genetic Engineering Ethics Policy.

Third-party data incorporated into Helix BioMedical's research pipeline -- including protein structure data from the Protein Data Bank, genomic sequence data from NCBI, protein sequence data from UniProt, and chemical compound data from PubChem -- is used in accordance with the respective terms of those databases. The Protein Data Bank data is freely available for all uses. UniProt data is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. NCBI data is publicly available subject to NCBI's terms of service. Researchers are responsible for reviewing and complying with the terms of any third-party database they access through or in connection with Helix BioMedical's research platform.

7. Copyright Policy

All original content on the Helix BioMedical website -- including text, graphics, photographs, illustrations, audio and video content, and the overall design and layout of web pages -- is copyright Helix BioMedical unless otherwise noted. This content may not be reproduced, distributed, modified, displayed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of Helix BioMedical, except as permitted under the Creative Commons licenses described in Section 6 for materials expressly released under those licenses.

Educational course materials provided to enrolled students are licensed to those students for personal educational use only. Students may not reproduce, distribute, post online, sell, or otherwise commercialize course materials, including lecture recordings, slide decks, laboratory protocols, and assessment materials, without prior written authorization from Helix BioMedical. This restriction applies during and after the student's enrollment in the program. Unauthorized distribution of course materials may constitute copyright infringement and a breach of the enrollment agreement, and may result in termination of access to organizational resources.

Helix BioMedical respects the copyright of third parties and expects all students, researchers, and personnel to do the same. Use of third-party copyrighted materials in educational instruction is governed by the fair use doctrine (17 U.S.C. SS 107) where applicable. Use of copyrighted materials beyond what fair use permits requires a license from the copyright holder. Students who incorporate third-party copyrighted content into research papers, presentations, or other work products created through Helix BioMedical programs are responsible for obtaining any required permissions and providing appropriate attribution.

Helix BioMedical claims no copyright ownership over student-authored work produced in connection with educational programs, except to the extent that such work incorporates Helix BioMedical proprietary materials or was produced under a sponsored research arrangement as described in Section 4. Student authors retain copyright in their original written work, data analysis, and creative contributions, subject to the joint IP provisions applicable where organizational resources were used in the work's creation.

8. DMCA Procedures

Helix BioMedical complies with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), 17 U.S.C. SS 512, and will respond promptly to valid notices of copyright infringement submitted in accordance with the procedures described below. If you believe that content available on or through the Helix BioMedical website or platforms infringes your copyright, you may submit a notice to our designated DMCA agent.

To be valid under the DMCA, a takedown notice must include: (1) a physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on their behalf; (2) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple works are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works; (3) identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, with information reasonably sufficient to permit Helix BioMedical to locate the material; (4) contact information for the notifying party, including name, address, telephone number, and email address; (5) a statement that the notifying party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and (6) a statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the notifying party is authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.

DMCA takedown notices should be submitted to: [email protected] with the subject line "DMCA Takedown Notice." Physical notices may be sent to Helix BioMedical's registered Wyoming address. Upon receipt of a valid DMCA notice, Helix BioMedical will act expeditiously to remove or disable access to the claimed infringing material and will notify the party who posted the material of the takedown.

If you believe that material was removed in error or misidentification, you may submit a counter-notice to our designated agent. A valid counter-notice must include: (1) your physical or electronic signature; (2) identification of the material that was removed and the location at which it appeared before removal; (3) a statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief that the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification; and (4) your name, address, telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the judicial district in which your address is located, or if your address is outside the United States, for any judicial district in which Helix BioMedical may be found. Please be aware that submitting a false or materially misleading DMCA notice or counter-notice may expose you to liability for damages under DMCA Section 512(f).

9. Patent Policy

Helix BioMedical may seek patent protection for inventions arising from organizational research activities where patents serve the organization's mission. The organization's approach to patent filing is selective and mission-aligned: we prioritize patent protection primarily to prevent third parties from patenting and then restricting access to research tools and methods developed through our programs, rather than to maximize commercial licensing revenue. Where possible, we prefer open publication (which establishes prior art and prevents subsequent patenting by others) over patent filing for discoveries with broad public health applications.

Inventions made by students or researchers using Helix BioMedical resources -- as described in Section 4 -- may be subject to patent filings by the organization under the joint IP provisions described therein. Students who believe they have made a potentially patentable invention in connection with Helix BioMedical programs are encouraged to disclose the invention to program administration promptly. Disclosures initiate a review process to determine whether a patent filing is appropriate and to establish the IP ownership arrangement applicable to the specific invention.

Helix BioMedical's use of patented third-party research tools and methods -- including certain CRISPR/Cas9 delivery methods and applications covered by existing patent portfolios -- is limited to educational and non-commercial research purposes consistent with research exemptions recognized under applicable patent law. The organization does not represent that all uses of patented technologies in educational or research contexts are categorically exempt from patent liability in all jurisdictions, and researchers with commercial application goals should seek independent legal advice regarding freedom-to-operate before commercializing methods they have learned about or practiced through Helix BioMedical programs.

10. IP Contact Information

All intellectual property inquiries -- including requests for trademark usage authorization, copyright permissions, student IP determinations, DMCA notices and counter-notices, patent disclosures, and open-source licensing questions -- should be directed to Helix BioMedical at:

Email: [email protected] (subject line: "Intellectual Property Inquiry")
Phone: (702) 825-0288
Website: helixbiomedical.us/legal/intellectual-property

Helix BioMedical is incorporated under Wyoming law and is headquartered in Wyoming. IP matters are governed by the laws of the State of Wyoming and applicable federal intellectual property law. Helix BioMedical endeavors to respond to all IP inquiries within ten (10) business days. Complex matters requiring legal review may take longer; we will acknowledge receipt of your inquiry and provide an estimated response timeline.

This Intellectual Property and Trademark Notices page was last updated on March 19, 2026 and supersedes all prior versions. Helix BioMedical reviews and updates this page at least annually or whenever material changes in the organization's IP portfolio, third-party software dependencies, or data licensing arrangements warrant an update.