Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Office

For Inventors

The Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Office provides patent information and services to the public. The Opitt is staffed by former Supervisory Patent Examiners and experienced Primary Examiners who answer general questions concerning patent examining policy and procedure.

Services to the Academic Body

  • Facilitate networking among research personnel at the university and private entities
  • Provide guidance on finding the investor, organizations, and funding for projects developed by the research staff at the university
  • Identify potential patentable invention disclosures, guide research projects and identify infringement risks
  • Workshops to students and research staff on fundamental concepts of Intellectual Property and patents
  • Workshops to students and research staff on patent searching
  • Patent searching for academic body and non university affiliated parties
  • Consult students and research staff on IP issues

Services to Academic Scientists Seeking to Start a Business

  • Review of invention disclosure form
  • Marketing analysis of promising technologies
  • On a case-by-case basis, preparation and filing of promising provisional patent applications
  • Match successful applicants with seed funding (depending on the availability of Funding Program)
  • On-site access to IP and commercialization databases
  • Review of grant proposals for IP and commercial potential issues

Research and Development

At this stage, new technology is being developed by the talented professors, scientist and students at the University of Puerto Rico. Ideas are being noted in Lab notebooks and are coming to life.

Invention Disclosure

Inventors should contact our office and/or submit an Invention Disclosure as early as possible in the inventive process, preferably before a public disclosure of the invention.  The Invention Disclosure aids in gathering specific information that will enable evaluation of the invention’s patentability and commercial potential.

Assessment of the Invention

The Invention Disclosures are evaluated for commercial potential and patentability.  This assessment process is performed by the Tech Transfer and Intellectual Property office of the University of Puerto Rico.  Factors that we consider in evaluating the commercial potential of an invention include:  problems solved or unmet needs addressed by the technology, potential applications, envisioned product profile, market size, market landscape, market dynamics, potential competitors, potential partners, type of technology, development stage of the technology and potential challenges to commercialization.

For every Invention Disclosure we check for patentability by performing a patent search. We review issued patents, published patent applications and non-patent literature to see if there exist any published document that discloses any similarities to the invention of interest. After reviewing any documents of interest, we provided guidance on the next steps to take with the invention such as modifying it or applying for a patent right away.

Protection

During the patent application process, our attorneys and patent agents will proceed with preparing the application and working with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to get the patent approved.

Commercialization and Market Assessment

At this stage, all of the patents in the portfolio of the University of Puerto Rico are assess and its market potential is determined. We see if it makes more sense to license the patent to existing companies or if is better to create a new start-up company with the patents. In order to make the proper assessment, we consider the licensing candidates, the market and technology landscape for every patent.