FAQ

Contact Technology Transfer (OTT) before disclosing details about your research to the company. We will move as appropriate to protect the patentability of any intellectual property.

The Bayh-Dole Act gave universities the right to own patent rights to inventions developed with U.S. government funds. Under this act:

• Universities must report inventions arising from federally funded projects
• Universities must share revenues with inventors
• Universities have constraints on how technology is commercialized
• the intellectual property must be licensed to a company that will exploit it to the advantage of the public
• preference for licensing to U.S. companies
• preference for licensing to small companies

No. Patents can take several years to issue. Once the patent is applied for, you can speak publicly about your invention. In some cases, you can submit your paper before the patent is applied for – this must be done in coordination with the OTT to avoid unintended public disclosure. You can speak openly to other Mines personnel about your invention, as that is not as a public disclosure.

No. It is possible to both publish and patent an idea. While OTT would like ample time to assess an invention before applying for a patent, in some cases, this is not an option. The OTT will work with the inventor to make sure that commercialization of the invention does not in any way impede academic progress.

Contact the OTT as early as possible. In some cases, the OTT can file a patent within a day. The ideal situation is that we would have at least a month to assess the invention before making a decision, but we will work with the inventors to make sure they can publish their results.

A public disclosure occurs when information that would allow someone skilled in the art to replicate your invention is made available to the public through any means. If a public disclosure occurs before a patent application is filed, all foreign patent rights are lost and you have just one year from the date of the disclosure to file a US patent. If you discuss your invention with personnel inside Mines, it is not a public disclosure. If you want to discuss it with colleagues outside of Mines, we can put a confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement in place, which will allow you to share the details of your invention without damaging your patent rights.

• To move inventions into the commercial realm, IP protection must be in place to enable companies to retain exclusivity in the marketplace.
• To provide companies sponsoring research – they must be able to recoup their investments in the technologies.
• To ensure inventions have practical applications and improve quality of life for citizens.
• Because Federal law (Bayh-Dole Act) requires that results from federally funded research be developed to benefit taxpayers.
• To attract and retain top faculty.
• To increase institutional revenues (shared with inventors).
• To promote economic development for the state.
• To generate income to promote and support teaching and research.
• To provide opportunities for more sponsored research

Mines owns all invention created by researchers in their areas of expertise. This includes all intellectual property developed through projects sponsored by the state, federal agencies or private industry. Mines does not assert ownership of traditional scholarly works such as articles, books, works of art and music or inventions made outside of the research field of expertise for which they were hired.

If you think there may be a possibility that the invention merits protection, please contact OTT and fill out an invention disclosure form as soon as possible. Doing the research to determine the fitness of the invention for commercialization is one of the primary duties of the OTT. We will work with you to help you understand and the potential paths for protection and commercialization. 

Fill out and sign the invention disclosure form (direct download). The more complete the disclosure, the faster and more efficiently we can assess your invention. Please make sure all inventors are listed.

An inventor is one who was the first to form, in his or her mind, a definite perception of the claimed invention or design. NOT AN INVENTOR – A person who:

• contributes to an obvious element of the invention
• merely suggests an idea
• simply follows instruction
• explains how or why an invention works
• adopts information derived from another

JOINT INVENTION

• need not have physically worked together or at the same time
• need not make an equal contribution
• need not contribute to the subject matter of every claim

It is important that a US patent application name the correct inventors. Failure to name the proper inventors or including people who are not inventors could invalidate your patent. You can recognize contributors who are not inventors by sharing licensing revenues with them. Inventorship is a legal determination that we ask our patent attorneys to make.

The OTT will research the technology, explore the uses/markets for the technology, identify the inventive elements and assess the patentability and commercial viability of the invention.

A patent enables the owner of the patent to exclude others from making, using, or selling the invention for twenty years from the date of filing the application. Patentable material includes new processes, devices, instruments, formulations, machines, manufactures, composition of matter, and any new or useful improvements of the former.

To obtain a patent, an invention must be novel, non-obvious, and have utility. Novelty means that one cannot patent something that is already known. If the invention is described or sold anywhere in the world, or if it is sold anywhere in the world, it is not novel. Non-obvious means that the invention could not have been conceived by someone “having ordinary skill in the art” without undue experimentation. In other words, if someone puts two pieces of prior art together that anyone in the field could do and it is potentially not patentable. This is a legal determination made by the patent examiner and can be contested if so desired. Utility means that an invention must perform some function, be operable, and must be beneficial to society.

If after assessing your invention disclosure report and talking to the inventor(s), the OTT feels the invention has commercial potential, we assign your invention to outside patent council to prepare a patent application. The inventor(s) should be available to the patent attorneys to answer any technical questions. Once filed, it can take some time before the patent is issued.

Most likely this will have already been done in preparing an academic paper or presentation and we will rely on the inventor to provide us with these references. OTT will also do a prior art search and share the results with both the inventor and the patent attorneys. Failure to provide known prior art can lead to invalidation of the patent. 

It is extremely important to keep good, detailed and dated lab notebooks. This documentation is crucial should your patent ever be challenged.

While there is some time and effort needed to discuss the invention at the initial stages with the OTT and the patent attorney, the time demands on inventor(s) is minimal after that. The OTT may ask you to discuss the invention with potential licensees, but the OTT will market and negotiate the inventions for you and Mines. 

Because of the nature of business arrangements, there are several issues that both the inventors and industry need to be aware of:

• Ownership – As a state institution, CSM owns all intellectual property developed by its employees. However, the sponsor may have an exclusive option to any intellectual property developed. The sponsor may exercise that option for a exclusive or non-exclusive license, depending on their preference.
• Pre-valuing intellectual property – Because the intellectual property has not been developed at the time of the signing of a research agreement, assigning a value to that intellectual property is impossible. As such, Mines agrees to negotiate in good faith the value of the intellectual property, once its created and the sponsor has determined they wish to pursue a license agreement.
• Maintaining publication and research rights – Mines must always retain the ability to use the results of sponsored research in publications (subject to a short review by the sponsor) and for further research and educational purposes.

A confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement allows researchers to talk to people outside of Mines while maintaining the patentability of the invention. If you need a CDA please contact the OTT or the Office of Research Administration. Under no circumstances should a researcher sign a CDA.

A material transfer agreement allows researchers to: Send materials to colleagues outside of Mines

• Receive materials from colleagues outside of Mines
• When you want to bring materials from another institution to Mines
• When you want to take materials to another institution from Mines

MTAs protect researchers at Mines by:

• Defining the material
• Setting the rules about how the materials will be used and distributed
• Defining any intellectual property and publication rights

If you need an MTA please contact the OTT or the Office of Research Administration. Under no circumstances should a researcher sign a MTA.