University Patents

So you are a budding scientist attending university and in your research you stumble across a great discovery or idea and you think it warrants a patent. Being part of a university makes the process less complicated which is great because the process is otherwise very complicated and very expensive. There may still be questions and concerns with regard to who owns what aspects of the intellectual property but all-in-all if the university is handling the process it’s usually straight forward.

That’s the good news. The bad news is you will have to share equity in your discovery with the university itself and there is a possibility that your professor will get the credit. Whether or not this occurs will be dependent on the patents policy of the university. Some will require an equity sharing agreement before research begins and others are more flexible. The Simon Fraser University for example will undertake the process for anyone who makes a discovery and they’ll do this for a share of equity in the project, “the University desires to provide a service and incentive by helping faculty and staff in the complicated area of patenting on the basis that they have the first right to patents on their discoveries arising out of work in the University.”

University Policy

Their policy goes like this, “The University recognizes, under existing patent law, that the University inventor - be it a member of faculty, staff or the student body - has the first right of ownership to patents, even if the patentable process or development was produced solely using University time and facilities.”

That’s fair. The trick may then be in proving whether it was the student, or professor, who made the discovery. It also pays to be aware of specific universities policies before you begin with a project.