PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

 

INSTRUCTIONS FOR INVENTION DISCLOSURE FORM

 

This Invention Disclosure Form is for use by University Faculty, Staff, and Students to report the creation of intellectual property.  It should be used for all inventions, as well as for computer software.  It is designed to provide the Office of Technology Licensing and Intellectual Property with sufficient preliminary information to open a file and initiate the case review process.  This form must be completed in its entirety, signed by the inventors and forwarded to the Office of Technology Licensing and Intellectual Property, where it will be assigned a Docket Number and assigned to a Case Manager for review.

 

The requested information is as follows:

 

  1. Disclosure Title: The title should be a general one.  It may be changed by the patent attorney if a patent is filed. 

 

  1. Sponsorship:  Once we have a completed form, this Office fulfills your responsibility of reporting the invention to your sponsors.  You must supply all contract numbers for any Government, Corporate or Foundation support.

 

  1. Publications, Oral Presentations, Poster Sessions, Web Postings:  Provide key dates in the disclosure of the technology including all past and future dates of publications and presentations.  For a United States patent, you have up to a year to file the application after any such disclosure.  For foreign patent coverage, however, the patent application must be filed BEFORE any such disclosure.  Failure to do so will mean a loss of all potential foreign patent rights.

 

4.-8.  Explanation of the Invention:  These sections are designed to help outline the parameters of the invention.

 

9.   Experimental Verification: Please indicate if you have run experiments to verify that the invention works, and if you have constructed a prototype device.

 

10. References: It is extremely important to attach copies of any publication by you related to this invention.  Rough or first drafts of papers, preprints, experimental data sheets, are all important to include, in the event that we need to file a patent quickly due to a emergent publication or presentation.

 

  1. Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs): Some Material Transfer Agreements may contain Intellectual Property clauses that define ownership or contain restrictions on commercialization.  It is important to note any MTA on this form that pertains to the invention.

 

  1. Possible Means of Commercialization: Please provide your ideas on the most likely commercial path for the invention.

 

  1. Potential Licensees: Please provide any industry contacts that you have made and companies or industry areas that you believe would have an interest in the invention.

 

If you have an immediate publication or presentation date and gathering the attachment materials would delay the submission of this form to this Office, please submit it immediately, and provide the attachment materials as soon a possible afterwards.

 

The completed form can be mailed or delivered to: The  Office of Technology Licensing and Intellectual Property, 4 New South Building, Princeton, NJ 08544-0036.

 

If you have any questions about completing this form, please call the Director at 609-258-1570.