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III. Inventions

A. Ownership of Inventions

  1. Any Invention resulting from activities related to an individual’s employment responsibilities or with support from University-administered funds, resources, facilities or personnel shall be assigned to the University.
  2. An Invention unrelated to an individual’s employment responsibilities that is developed exclusively on his or her own time without any University funds, resources, facilities or personnel shall be owned by the Inventor.
  3. Ownership of an Invention developed in the course of, or resulting from, work supported by a grant or contract with a governmental entity or a nonprofit or for-profit nongovernmental entity, shall be determined in accordance with the terms of the grant or contract or, in the absence of such terms, shall be owned by and assigned to the University, as otherwise provided in this Policy.

B. Disclosure, Assignment and Protection

  1. All persons subject to this Policy shall promptly disclose their Inventions in the prescribed form (Invention Disclosure), signed by the Inventor(s) and submitted to the supervising vice president or senior officer designated by the President.
  2. To protect and preserve the Intellectual Property rights defined in this Policy and to comply with federal regulations, Inventors shall execute assignments and other appropriate documents as may be requested by the supervising vice president or senior officer designated by the President to protect the University’s ownership and rights to Inventions.
  3. The supervising vice president or senior officer designated by the President shall review all Invention Disclosures, evaluate their patentability and potential value and provide an interim report to the Inventor within 60 days.
  4. The supervising vice president or senior officer designated by the President shall make a determination whether the University should seek patent protection for an Invention. That determination will depend upon the availability of funds and an assessment of the Invention’s value and at the request of the Inventor is reviewable by the Intellectual Property Review Board. When the failure to patent is based solely upon lack of funds, any Dean or Director may commit discretionary funds to patent an Invention, and, should it be licensed, may recover the costs out of gross Royalties. No Inventor shall have a right to have an Invention patented until a determination has been made on whether or not the University will pursue obtaining a patent.
  5. The right of employees to publish the results of research is subject to the rights of the University or the terms of a grant or SRA funding the work. However, any public disclosure of an Invention, such as a presentation, publication or grant proposal, prior to filing a Patent application, limits Patent rights and reduces an Invention’s value. Therefore, employees are required to disclose their Inventions to the University sufficiently in advance of public disclosure to allow the University to comply with the terms of a grant, SRA funding or to protect the University’s interest in the invention. If the University is not notified 60 days prior to publication or disclosure it reserves the right to delay any such public disclosure.
  6. The faculty, staff and students acknowledge the rights of the University to protect Inventions as Trade Secrets. Thus, the University may take reasonable precautions to assure the confidentiality and physical security of formulas, methods, processes, patterns, computer code, devices, compositions of matter or other Tangible Research Property.

C. Licensing and Commercialization

  1. Agreements that grant to companies the rights to commercially develop Inventions are encouraged. The supervising vice president or senior officer designated by the President is responsible for negotiating such agreements, on behalf of the University, and in close coordination with Inventors. Such agreements shall be approved as to form by the University’s legal counsel.
  2. Inventors shall, whenever practicable, be advised and consulted on the progress of License negotiations, but in no event shall they have a right of approval to the legal or payment terms of any agreement. The University shall not have a duty to an Inventor to secure a minimum Royalty.