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Disclosure Obligations

Under Saint Louis University’s Intellectual Property policy, creators are required to disclose to the Research Innovation Group intellectual property made using significant SLU resources or pursuant to a research project funded through corporate, federal or other external sponsors.

Intellectual property is any product of the human intellect that the law protects from unauthorized use by others. This includes, but is not limited to, the discovery or creation of new material (either a new manufactured product or a new composition or matter), a new process, a new use for an existing material, or any improvements of any of these. Saint Louis University's Intellectual Property policy is available to read online on the Research Innovation Group website. 

We encourage you to contact us as soon as possible and submit an Intellectual Property Disclosure Form well in advance of making the intellectual property public.

When to Submit a Disclosure

You may have questions about when you should submit an intellectual property disclosure form. We recommend that you do not try to determine if what you’ve developed is patentable. There is a world of difference between patentability (which is determined by law), innovative and useful (which is determined by your colleagues and other experts in your field), and commercially valuable (which is determined by the market). Patents are not the only option for creating and protecting intellectual property. Moreover, inventions and technologies are not the only forms of intellectual property. 

Below are several simple rules of thumb that will help you determine when you should submit an intellectual property disclosure form.

  1. You complete the final draft of your dissertation or thesis.
  2. You complete the first draft of a submission for publication.
  3. At least two weeks before you plan on presenting a public lecture or exhibiting a poster about your invention or innovation.
  4. You complete a summary report at the end of a funded research project.
  5. You conceive something that is genuinely new to your field and would likely be recognized as so by your peers regardless of whether or not it is worthy of publication.
  6. You believe that you have created an invention or developed something significantly innovative.

To submit an intellectual property disclosure, please complete Intellectual Property Disclosure Form and send it to otm@slu.edu.