When Should I Fill Out An Invention Disclosure Form?

In order to preserve potential patent rights, we strongly encourage inventors to disclose their invention at least four months before any public disclosure. Public disclosures include, but are not limited to, journal and website publications, presentations at conferences, posters, dissertations or master theses, and abstract publications. For more information on this topic, see “Why Inventors Should Disclose Their Inventions Prior to Public Disclosure” in the “Additional Information” section that follows these questions.

If your work is going to be publicly disclosed within two or three weeks, please notify Kate Richards in the IDEA Center as soon as possible.