Standard PageProtect Intellectual Property
Many university inventors report great satisfaction in seeing their research efforts result in practical benefits to society. Many also find that the increased contact with industry improves the relevance of teaching programs and increases students' chances for internships and employment.
By securing the intellectual property in your research and commercializing innovations, you benefit society and make money for you and the university, as outlined in the University of Missouri's Collected Rules and Regulations.
The protection of intellectual property begins with good laboratory practices and lab notebook recording practices.
Guidelines for lab notebooks (researchers should also meet the further guidelines of their department):
- NIH Guidelines for Scientific Record Keeping in the Intramural Research Program
- Guide for Keeping Laboratory Records
Patents
A U.S. patent gives inventors the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling, or importing the invention for a limited time. In exchange, inventors agree to publicly disclose the invention when the USPTO publishes the patent application and again when the patent is granted. However, not every discovery, even those that can be successfully commercialized, requires a patent. Patents can be sought in other nations as well, and the complexities in filing and legal proceedings make this an expensive process. Each US patent may cost the university $25,000 to $35,000 to reach patent allowance and each country filing may be just as costly, if not more.
Patents can be awarded to a material, a process, a new use of an existing material, or an improvement on an existing technology, so long as it can be demonstrated to be new, useful, and not obvious to other professionals in the field.
Patents provide rights for limited periods of years for inventions in these categories:
- Utility patents protect useful processes, machines, articles of manufacture, and compositions of matter. (20 years from date of filing)
- Design patents guard the unauthorized use of new, original, and ornamental designs for articles of manufacture. (15 years from date of grant)
- Plant patents protect invented or discovered, asexually reproduced plant varieties. (20 years from date of filing)
Trademarks
Trademarks protect words, names, symbols, sounds, or colors that distinguish goods and services. Unlike patents, trademarks can be renewed forever as long as they are being used in business. Trademarks may be registered with the federal government, the state government, or used as a common law mark. See USPTO Trademark Basics (PDF).
Copyrights
Copyrights protect the form of expression, but not the subject matter of a literary, dramatic, musical, or artistic work.
A copyright gives the owner exclusive right to:
- Reproduce the copyrighted work
- Create derivative works
- Distribute copies of the copyrighted work
- Perform the copyrighted work publicly
- Display the copyrighted work publicly
The Library of Congress registers copyrights, which last the life of the author plus 70 years for individual works. See Copyright Basics (PDF).
Trade Secrets
Trade secrets are information that companies keep secret to give them an advantage over their competitors. As a knowledge dissemination entity, the university does not operate in trade secrets that often. See USPTO Trade Secrets and Regulatory Data Protection.
More than one form of intellectual property may apply to a technology. For instance, a software process may be patented, the code copyrighted, and the name of the software program trademarked. OTC staff can work with faculty, university counsel, and outside counsel to review the intellectual property and make informed choices regarding property protection.