The BioBrick Public Agreement is an open legal tool for standard biological parts: a contributor signs a Contributor Agreement promising not to assert existing or future intellectual property rights against users of the part, and a user signs a User Agreement, so a part can be used without negotiating a licence. It is a contract among the parties rather than a copyright licence, drafted at MIT in 2009 and 2010.
What a contributor promises and a user agrees to
The Contributor Agreement and the User Agreement together make up the BPA, and the contributor's core term is an irrevocable promise not to assert any existing or future intellectual property rights in the part against the user (the BPA FAQ, archived). The user, in turn, agrees not to use the materials in connection with any intentionally harmful, negligent or unsafe use; no fees are charged beyond a nominal cost of manufacture and shipping; the agreement is governed by Massachusetts law; and the user agrees not to remove or alter the biobricks.org/bpa address on what they pass on (User Agreement v1.0, archived). No register of who agreed is kept beyond the agreement itself.
What the BPA does not do
It is not viral: new materials and applications built using BPA-contributed parts may still be considered for patent or other protection, so a company can build a product on open parts. It does not apply retroactively to every part that follows the BioBrick assembly standard, only to parts a contributor has put under it, and contributing a part does not require sending any physical material; the promise covers the part's information as well as copies of it (the BPA FAQ, archived).
Versions and history
Version 1.0 was released for public comment in October 2009 (the Foundation's timeline, archived); a draft dated 18 October 2009 is in MIT's repository, and BPA v1a, by Drew Endy and colleagues, was issued on 25 January 2010 to replace it (MIT DSpace). The Foundation's timeline records Ginkgo Bioworks contributing the first part under BPA v1.0, and in April 2015 the start of the bionet project with the OpenMTA and a BPA v2.0 as its legal framework.
Status today, and where BPA parts are
The Foundation's website, and with it the online signing of the BPA, stopped serving in 2025, and we found no organisation that says it now keeps the contributor and user registry. Addgene's former BioBrick Public Agreement collection page now redirects to the BIOFAB kit from Drew Endy's lab, and a BIOFAB plasmid there is offered under the UBMTA and marked not available to industry (Addgene). For sharing physical parts on open terms today, the agreement in common use is the OpenMTA: see our page on the OpenMTA.
Questions people ask about biobrick public agreement
What is the BioBrick Public Agreement?
An open legal tool for standard biological parts: contributors promise not to assert intellectual property rights against users, and users agree to the terms, so parts can be used freely.
Is the BPA a licence?
No. It is a contract among the parties, a contributor agreement and a user agreement, not a copyright-based licence.
Can I patent something made with BPA parts?
Yes, potentially. The BPA is not viral: novel materials and applications built with BPA-contributed parts may still be protected.
Is the BPA still in use?
Its online signing ended with the BioBricks Foundation's website in 2025, and the BIOFAB plasmids that were Addgene's BPA collection are now offered under the UBMTA.
Sources
- BioBrick Public Agreement FAQ (archived March 2025) (retrieved 2026-10-21)
- BPA User Agreement v1.0 (archived March 2025) (retrieved 2026-10-21)
- MIT DSpace: BPA v1a, January 2010 (retrieved 2026-10-21)
- BioBricks Foundation timeline (archived April 2025) (retrieved 2026-10-21)
- Addgene: a BIOFAB plasmid's terms (retrieved 2026-10-21)