About Us
When I Want to Present a Poster/Publish a Paper/Talk About My Discovery...
What do I need to do?
Contact the Office of Technology Development immediately. If it is economically justified, OTC will work with you to obtain patent protection prior to your scheduled publication. OTC can file a patent application in as little as 24- 48 hours, if need be. The Office of Technology Development can also assist in the negotiation of a confidentiality agreement for limited disclosures. Disclosures made under a confidentiality agreement do not constitute public disclosures.
Avoid public disclosure of your invention before a patent application is filed.
What is ‘public disclosure?’
Public disclosure is any communication in any language that is available to the public and that has enough detail to allow another person to duplicate your invention. This includes talks at meetings, poster presentations, talks given at companies, abstract publication, webpage publication, etc. It should be noted that many scientific journals publish your article on their websites prior to the article coming out in print form, and this constitutes a public disclosure.
Disclosing an invention to other M. D. Anderson faculty or staff does not ordinarily constitute public disclosure.
If your invention is publicly disclosed without first filing for patent protection all foreign patent rights are lost and you have one year from the public disclosure to file for U.S. rights (see below).
What if I describe my discovery in a poster session or meeting abstract?
It is preferable that you avoid including enough detail in your poster or abstract to allow another person to duplicate your work.
Contact the Office of Technology Development for assistance. OTC will assist you in protecting your invention.
Will Technology Commercialization interfere with publication of my results?
The technology commercialization process does not usually interfere with the academic publication process. However, you may be asked to delay publication for a short period (30 days or less) in some cases to allow filing of a patent application. Informing Technology Commercialization of the existence of an invention as early as possible minimizes the likelihood that even this short delay will be requested.
What if I make my discovery public? Can it still be patented?
U.S. law allows filing of a patent application up to one year after public disclosure. After the year elapses, the invention becomes part of the public domain.
Foreign countries require that a patent application be filed before any public disclosure is made. If this does not occur, patent protection in those countries is automatically forfeited.
When can I talk to an outside company about my invention?
As soon as the Office of Technology Commercialization arranges for the company to sign a Confidential Disclosure Agreement (CDA) to obligate the company to keep your invention secret. We recommend that you do NOT tell a company enough specific information to enable them to duplicate your invention if there is no CDA in place. Without the protection of a CDA, a company may sometimes take your idea without compensating or recognizing you or M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Once contacted, the Office of Technology Commercialization can obtain a signed Confidential Disclosure Agreement in as little as 24 - 48 hours.