IUPUI

Faculty

Getting Started

Faculty interested in commercialization may find the process confusing.  Often, there are just too many questions and it can be difficult to find the answers.  An individual consultation is an excellent opportunity to explore the option of commercialization, and find ways to minimize the time and effort that it might otherwise take to move forward.

Examples of the questions that faculty might have:

• What are patents and provisional patent applications? Who owns the patent?
• What is publication for patent purposes? Is a dissertation or thesis considered a "publication?"
• I gave a talk last year on this; can I file a patent?
• Will obtaining a patent stop others from doing academic research about the same subject matter?
• Is a patent necessary for commercial success?
• I have a good idea, but haven't done any lab work on it. Can we patent it?
• Who pays for the patent application?
• If IURTC determines that it is not interested in pursuing my invention, may I have it back to pursue on my own?
• What is the difference between licensing a patent and selling a patent?
• Can faculty and staff engage in a side business? What about outside consulting?
• My graduate student was very helpful in executing the experiments for this invention; will he/she be listed on the patent?
• Can I call the attorney and talk to her about this application?
• Without talking the time to learn U.S. and foreign patent laws, how do I avoid jeopardizing my patent rights?
• What is a confidentiality agreement? Who can sign a confidentiality agreement?
• What about biological materials?  Who should review an MTA?  How do the terms of these agreements affect intellectual property rights?
• Asking the right questions is often as important as finding the answers.

Programs

Funding Opportunities for Research Commercialization and Economic Success (FORCES)

The FORCES program is designed to support IUPUI researchers in the successful transformation of their research findings into commercially viable outcomes. The key goals of FORCES are to support: 1) realization of short-term projects that will enhance commercial value of IUPUI intellectual property assets, by facilitating commercialization of inventions, technologies, or other intellectual property derived from existing research projects, and 2) development of research initiatives that show great promise for commercialization of the research outcomes.
Deadlines: September 15 and March 15

Innovation to Enterprise Central Projects

IUPUI researchers/scholars with research projects in various stages of enterprise development are invited to submit proposals for ITEC projects. Under supervision of the ITEC facilitation team, faculty clients, and faculty and/or community mentors, students on the project team will be responsible for research, planning, and development of a new process, application, and/or prototype.

The proposed project should involve meaningful opportunities for students to become involved in the innovation to enterprise process beyond what they would typically encounter in existing academic coursework or other campus activities.  Potential team tasks could involve researching the market, considering various possible solutions, defining a scope of work, seeking expert advice and input, developing an R&D timeline and strategy, creating a user/market strategy, developing a working technology solution (or prototype), testing the solution, and updating their findings over a 20-24 week period.  Students will make a formal final report to the faculty client, faculty and community mentors, and ITEC facilitation team at the end of the project.

Questions?
Karen White, CLP
Research Development & Commercialization Facilitator
Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research
Phone:  317-274-1083
Email: kfwhite@iupui.edu