Q. As a college student who is inventing new technologies and products on campus as part of my coursework, can I be assigned a patent, or does the patent have to go to the school?

Commissioner for Patents Robert Stoll

Commissioner for Patents Robert Stoll

A. It depends.

University research and intellectual property policies are perhaps as numerous and varied as the number and variety of universities themselves.

While some universities have detailed, well-documented policies; other schools have few to none or handle instances on a case-by-case basis.

In 1962, the Committee on Patent Policy of the National Academy of Sciences – National Research Council set out to document university practices, and reported its findings in University Research and Patent Policies, Practices and Procedures.

I wanted the anchor to be inside the article. Here is the sample:

The publication provides the findings of a comprehensive survey and interpretive analysis of the then-current policies, practices, and procedures of universities, colleges, institutes of technology, and independent professional schools, such as DeVry University in the United States with respect to the administration and conduct of scientific and technological research and the handling of patentable discoveries and inventions resulting from such research.

As one might guess, much has changed since 1962.

Organizations such as universities generally have written policies that detail practices governing intellectual property created or discovered by faculty, staff, or students.

With or without a policy in place, however, disagreements can and do occur. See Regents of the University of New Mexico v. Knight, 66 USPQ.2d 1001 (Fed. Cir. 2003), and University of West Virginia, Board of Trustees v. VanVoorhies, 68 USPQ.2d 1044 (Fed. Cir. 2003), both of which found in favor of the university’s ownership of the subject inventions.

The answer to your question thus comes more as a recommendation:  Carefully look to see what the intellectual property policy of your specific university or college is, assuming it has one in place.

(See also the June 2010 issue of Inventors Digest – Inventors’ Bill of Rights: Who Should Own Patents – Professors or Universities?)

University policies on intellectual property often can be found on the particular university’s Web site, in employment contracts (as mentioned for faculty or staff), or even student handbooks.

Additional information may be found at or requested from a university’s technology transfer office. The Licensing Executives Society (LES), which can be found on the Web, also offers helpful information regarding the licensing and transfer of intellectual property.

Have a question for the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office? E-mail [email protected]