§ 791.013. CONTRACT SUPERVISION AND ADMINISTRATION.

(a) To supervise the performance of an interlocal contract, the parties to the contract may:

(1) create an administrative agency;

(2) designate an existing local government; or

(3) contract with an organization that qualifies for exemption from federal income tax under Section 501(c), Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, that provides services on behalf of political subdivisions or combinations of political subdivisions and derives more than 50 percent of its gross revenues from grants, funding, or other income from political subdivisions or combinations of subdivisions.

(b) The agency, designated local government, or organization described by Subsection (a)(3) may employ personnel, perform administrative activities, and provide administrative services necessary to perform the interlocal contract.

(c) All property that is held and used for a public purpose by the administrative agency or designated local government is exempt from or subject to taxation in the same manner as if the property were held and used by the participating political subdivisions.

(d) An administrative agency created under this section may acquire, apply for, register, secure, hold, protect, and renew under the laws of this state, another state, the United States, or any other nation:

(1) a patent for the invention or discovery of:

(A) any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, art, or method;

(B) any new use of a known process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, art, or method; or

(C) any new and useful improvement on a known process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, art, or method;

(2) a copyright of an original work of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which the work may be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device;

(3) a trademark, service mark, collective mark, or certification mark for a word, name, symbol, device, or slogan that the agency uses to identify and distinguish the agency's goods and services from other goods and services; and

(4) other evidence of protection of exclusivity issued for intellectual property.