Resources for Inventors

Inventors can help make the environment cleaner, workplaces safer, crops more abundant, foods tastier, and humans and animals healthier.  The Technology Licensing Office welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the 'innovation through commercialization' process, by facilitating, a return on the investments the public, the University, and, iindividual scientists and engineers have made in advancing knowledge. 

The formal university-industry technology transfer process starts with a disclosure.  Faculty, staff and students are asked to submit invention disclosures to the Technology Licensing Office using the standard forms that are available in this section.  Someone from our office will usually consult with you and and then the Patent & Copyright Committee will review the disclosure using an IP evaluation Checklist to assist the invention and will then make a go/no go recommendation to the Chancellor or the Vice President for the Division of Agriculture.

The more detailed the description of the invention, how it is made and used, and its advantages related to prior technology (faster, cheaper, stronger), the better placed the Committee is to vote on whether or not to invest additional University resources in the protection (usually via patenting), marketing, and licensing of the underlying intellectual property.  Please write the disclosure in full, clear, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the field to which the discovery pertains to make and use the invention.  Patent law requires that the specification set forth the precise and best mode of the invention in a manner that distinguishes it from other inventions and what is currently known and practiced.  Also, be bold about listing potential applications in other fields. 

Let's work together to realize the benefits of your inventions.