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The Technology Transfer Process - Disclosure
If you believe you have made a useful invention, you should visit our Policies & Forms page to complete and submit the Technology Disclosure Form. It collects pertinent information on inventors, key dates, addresses, etc. that the OTT will need as the process progresses. Of particular importance is the box for the funding information. If the work was funded by a federal grant or by an industrial grant, there will be certain obligations of disclosure and reporting that we will need to follow, so please ensure that this information is accurate. If internal funds were involved, please describe them. If no federal, industrial or internal funding was involved, please state "None".
The other critical piece of information on this form is the "Date of First Public Disclosure." To preserve worldwide patent rights, a patent application must be filed before the first public disclosure of enough information to allow someone "ordinarily skilled in the art" (i.e., another scientist with the right background) to reproduce your invention. Private discussions within your laboratory group meetings don't constitute a public disclosure, but anything that a member of the public could attend – such as an advertised talk or seminar – would constitute public disclosure. If you have disclosed the invention publicly, we can still obtain US patent protection if we file within a year of that disclosure.
We will need a written description of the Invention. Many invention disclosures are driven by a grant submission or by an impending publication, so typically, the written description will be a manuscript, or a grant application. It will be helpful to have this available electronically.
If any of the Inventors have not signed a copy of the BUMC Patent Policy or the Charles River Campus Patent Policy, this step must be completed.
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