Issue link: https://htpgraphics.uberflip.com/i/626614
If you have an idea or observation and are wondering if it has potential value contact one of our Commercialisation Executives. Look at our website for a list of key contacts or refer to the leaflet at the inside of the back cover of this Guide. What happens next? You will be invited to meet with one of our Commercialisation Executives, specific to your faculty, to discuss your idea/observation. We will then complete an Invention Disclosure based on the information you give. The Invention Disclosure is very important. It helps UMIP's Commercialisation Executives to define and understand the results of your research and, in the first instance, identify if there is any IP to protect. It provides us with the preliminary information needed to begin the process of protecting it. The Invention Disclosure and other documents in the UMIP process are designed to complement the laboratory notebook, which may be the primary source of much of the information required and should be carefully preserved and made available, on request, to the University or its agents. It will also be proof of inventorship/creation and aid registration. To avoid risking the protection of certain of your IP rights and possibly hindering the opportunity to market your IP, contact UMIP before holding any discussions with people outside of the University or indeed anyone who is not an employee of the University such as students, Visiting Fellows or Honorary Lecturers. If a patent or design right application has not yet been filed and your idea/observation has been publicly disclosed (e.g. published papers, poster sessions, conference, web disclosure or other communication), potential protection of any IP may be jeopardised. Please contact UMIP in sufficient time to allow us to consider the filing of a patent or design right application before publicly disclosing your idea/observation. We will provide you with a Confidentiality Agreement for the party to sign before you describe your invention or design to them. We would even recommend it for other automatically protected IP, such as source code. UMIP has a strong working relationship with the University's Research Office and with the Contract Services Team to ensure that IP and confidentiality issues are managed closely and in a consistent way. What do you do if you have an idea? 20