Timing: Disclosures and Publications
If our research confirms its commercial potential, we can help you get maximum protection for your invention, sometimes through patenting, sometimes through other means. But to benefit from U.S. and international patent laws, it’s important to disclose your intellectual property to OTD as early as possible, preferably at least six months before you engage in any public discussion of the technology. If you are preparing a manuscript for submission to a journal or are planning a poster session or public seminar, it is wise to also consider making a disclosure to OTD at the same time. Any public disclosure of your invention – even just mentioning the invention in a class – may seriously limit protection for your idea. Public disclosure may include grant applications, publication in scholarly journals, presented papers, talks to business or peer groups, and interviews for newspaper articles or trade journals.
Public Disclosure More Than One Year before Filing a U.S. Patent Application. You must file a U.S. patent application within one year of disclosing your invention publicly, or you lose the possibility of obtaining a patent – in both the U.S. and foreign countries.
Public Disclosure Less Than One Year before Filing a U.S. Patent Application. In the U.S., you have a one-year grace period from the time of public disclosure in which to file a patent application. Thus, if you already have made a public disclosure of your invention, but less than a year has passed since you did so, OTD should still be able to prepare a high-quality patent application on your work. This is especially true if you bring your invention to OTD at least six months ahead of the deadline for filing a U.S. application.
Please Note: The grace period doesn’t apply for filing foreign patents.
No Public Disclosure Prior to Filing a U.S. Patent Application. If the technology is patentable and you have made no public disclosures, U.S. and foreign patent rights are obtainable. However, if your research is supported in whole or in part by federal funding, you have an obligation to make a disclosure of the technology to OTD prior to any public disclosures.
