Disclosing an Invention or Copyrighted Work
Both ABOR and UA IP policies call for University of Arizona employees to disclose ABOR-owned intellectual property, so that it may be made available to society, often after further development by one or more companies. The disclosure process is described below.
What Must be Disclosed
The policies cited above detail what intellectual property is claimed by ABOR. In brief, disclosure must occur:
- prior to discussions or actions involving commercialization of the IP
- prior to non-confidential presentation or publication of IP resulting from sponsor-supported projects
- within 30 days of creating IP during a sponsor-supported project, or within 180 days after the conclusion of such a project
Pre-disclosure Consultation
OTT encourages innovators to contact us by telephone or email prior to submitting a formal intellectual property disclosure for a new invention or work of authorship with potential commercial applications. By doing so, you can informally discuss with OTT:
- the innovation itself, including what makes it new and useful
- its stage of development toward a product or service
- sources of funding for the development work, and the degree to which ownership rights could be consolidated into a manageable package
- what steps might be taken to increase the likelihood of commercial interest in the innovation
Submitting a Disclosure
The disclosure document gathers information needed to assess, protect, and manage the innovation, including:
- A concise description of the innovation, as you might provide to an intelligent person not in your field
- A list of those who contributed to the innovation without, at this stage, making distinctions among formal authors and inventors and those who contributed in some less formal way
- The source, or sources, of funding for the work through which the innovation was developed; this information is needed to determine what, if any, rights are owed to research sponsors, those who supplied confidential information or proprietary materials, or other outside parties
- Any evidence for statutory bars, such as detailed public disclosure, or offer for sale, of an otherwise patentable invention more than a year ago
- Any information the innovators have regarding what companies might be interested in further developing the innovation for commercial purposes
- Important! Dated signatures all contributors, their department head(s), and witnesses.
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Last modified: June 23, 2008.
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