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Tech Transfer Process for Inventors

Contacting our office during your discovery process will help you to understand all the resources available for bringing your idea to reality. Our process is not necessarily a linear one, as steps can vary in sequence and often occur simultaneously.

Early contact with our office starts with a phone call, email, or by completing a disclosure form. Together with you, our case managers will evaluate your innovation, conduct patent searches if applicable, and analyze the market and competition.

This evaluation process will guide our strategic assessment on the best path forward, and together we will determine whether to focus on licensing your innovation to an existing company, or creating a new company. 

Reaching Out to Tech Transfer

  • When to reach out to tech transfer:
    • You have invented something
    • You have a manuscript drafted and ready to submit (or recently submitted/published)
    • You are planning a collaboration with industry
    • You would like to form a start-up company
  • Who to reach out to:
  • First step:
  • IP Protection and Commercialization Process:
    • Tech transfer will develop (ideally with your involvement) IP protection and commercialization strategy based on invention assessment
    • Depending, tech transfer and patent counsel file provisional patent application
    • Tech transfer markets to industry
    • ~9 months past prov. Filing date - Decision on conversion of provisional to full patent application
    • Depending, tech transfer and patent counsel convert provisional to full patent application by 1 year past prov. Filing date
    • Continuation of patent prosecution process and industry marketing
  • Potential commercialization outcomes:
    • UC licenses to existing company
    • Form a startup company, license IP from UC (connect to Venture Lab)

Have more questions?

We’ve assembled answers to commonly asked questions in our FAQs.