The disclosure will describe your invention, the people involved, any sponsors of your research, prior publications or public descriptions of the invention, commercial contacts, and any potential conflicts of interest you may have with commercial contacts. The information you provide will allow us to determine the commercial potential of your discovery and what legal protections, if any, are needed.
If you are not sure whether your discovery qualifies as an invention, if the university has rights to your discovery, if it’s patentable, or what its commercial applications may be, contact the Office of Technology Commercialization.
Once you publish, or publicly disclose, your discovery, you lose foreign patent rights and have just one year to file a patent in the United States.
However, seeking a patent does not preclude publication of research results, and, in most cases, does not delay publishing. To retain the potential for foreign patents, a U.S. patent application must be filed before any description of the invention is publicly disclosed.
The disclosure evaluation process may take anywhere from a week to three months, and possibly longer, depending on the complexity of the invention and the target industry.
To complete an Invention Disclosure Form please download the forms below and you may contact Eric Anderson to discuss invention, copyright, or mobile application.
Copyright Disclosure Form (Doc)
Invention Disclosure Form (Doc)