The primary purpose of reporting an innovation is to collect information so the UW Center for Commercialization can evaluate your innovation for intellectual property protection and commercial potential. Disclosing your innovation or discovery to the UW Center for Commercialization is required if your project has been supported by federal grants.
Disclosing your innovation is the first step leading to the establishment and protection of intellectual property rights necessary to bring about the commercialization of the technology.
Innovations should be reported as soon as they have been made, and before they are publicly disclosed. Failure to report your innovation prior to public disclosure, or reporting your innovation only immediately before public disclosure, may result in loss of intellectual property rights. Please speak with the UW Center for Commercialization before publishing (making public) your innovation. (See Patents and Public Disclosure FAQs for more information).
Much can be lost by not contacting the UW Center for Commercialization early in your research. It is best to communicate with the UW Center for Commercialization before your invention is fully implemented. The UW Center for Commercialization is happy to consult with you early, and continue working with you as development of your research progresses.
To report a new software or digital technology, request a consultation with a technology manager.
To report a new medical, lifesciences, or engineering device, method, process, material, or discovery, please read and complete a Record of Invention (ROI) form and submit it to the UW Center for Commercialization.
An ROI form is an official document which, when completed, serves as one important legal record of the date of the invention. It also provides the information the UW Center for Commercialization needs to evaluate your invention for potential intellecutal property protection and commercialization.
If you reported your innovation using the ROI form you will receive a confirmation email within 24 hours and within two weeks a technology manager will be assigned to work with you.
If you reported your innovation using the Consultation Request form you will receive an email response within 24 hours and a technology manager will be assigned to work with you at that time.
We will review your invention with you and then coordinate a preliminary evaluation of the invention’s potential for protection as intellectual property and for successful commercialization.
The department administering the research grant that generated the innovation being reported. This is typically the unit which paid for the innovator's salary and other significant resources used (such as lab space etc.) the UW Center for Commercialization uses this information in several ways; for quarterly activity reports sent to departments and royalty distributions.
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