Indiana University faculty, staff and students across all campuses, regional academic centers and academic disciplines who have created intellectual property using university resources can now disclose these innovations to the IU Innovation and Commercialization Office through a new online system.
Bill Brizzard, executive director of IU ICO, said disclosures are the most important part of the process that brings IU innovations to market.
“Before IU ICO personnel can help protect, market or license intellectual property, we have to know it exists,” Brizzard said. “The disclosure begins the process. We now have a more time-efficient method for disclosures to be sent to the office.”
Inventors begin the process at the Office of the Vice President for Research website. Upon selecting Invention Disclosures and “Submit a disclosure online,” they are taken to IU ICO’s Sophia database, where they choose the IU Inventors option. They log in with their Central Authentication Service, or CAS, credentials.
After gaining access, inventors select New Invention Disclosure on the navigation panel on the right side of the screen. They then provide information about the innovation by filling in text boxes or uploading relevant files. A video about the new disclosure process is online.
Brizzard said the online system provides several benefits.
“The new system allows more flexibility in the types of files or attachments that can be uploaded, and inventors can track the progress of individual invention disclosures,” Brizzard said.
Inventors can still disclose via email by downloading a form from the website and submitting it to ico@iu.edu. IU ICO also plans to put the system on One.IU.
In the 2017-18 fiscal year, the office received 171 invention disclosures, completed 46 licensing agreements, earned $3.4 million in licensing and royalty revenue, and received 141 patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and global organizations.
About Indiana University Innovation and Commercialization Office
Indiana University ICO is tasked with the protection and commercialization of technology emanating from innovations by IU researchers. Since 1997, IU research has generated almost 3,200 inventions resulting in more than 4,800 global patent applications. These discoveries have generated more than $145 million in licensing and royalty income, including more than $115 million in funding for IU departments, labs and inventors.
