Assessing your invention

After an innovation disclosure has been submitted to our office, we begin a 2- to 3-month review process to assess your invention. An initial inventor meeting between our team and the inventor(s) is scheduled within two weeks of receiving the Invention Disclosure Form to ensure proper understanding of the invention.

During this process, someone from our team may contact you with additional questions.

Assessment process:

Technology overview

  1. Key features
  2. Benefits
  3. Applications

Intellectual Property Assessment

  1. Search for prior art
  2. Search other publications, presentations, websites not covered in patent literature

Market Overview

  1. Where does the technology fall in the value chain?
  2. What is the rage of applicability?
  3. What is the market size?
  4. Is there potential for market growth?

Commercialization Readiness

  1. Level of development
  2. Ease of adoption

Recommendation

  1. Results of the screening assessment is presented to the Intellectual Property Advisory Committee
  2. IPAC then makes a decision whether or not to move forward with the IP protection

If the technology receives a favorable screening, next steps may include filing patent applications and moving the invention to the protection stage of the technology commercialization process. Otherwise, the invention will be returned to you.

Step 3: Protection