Do you have a technology that you need protection for? How about an idea that would benefit from some market research? Together with the Office of Intellectual Property Management, the Innovation Institute is here to guide and support you through Tulane’s end-to-end commercialization process. This principled, transparent, customer discovery-driven investment, protection, and go-to-market process allows us to translate ideas and discoveries into innovations. All along the way, we offer educational programming, funding, and access to experts that support the development of your ideas and technologies.
Are you a Tulanian who is ready to disclose your invention? Click here to start the process. Note: The hyperlink will go to a third-party site at Wellspring Sophia. You will be prompted to log-in with your Tulane email credentials. Disclosers will see an "Inventor" home page and a patentable disclosure form link on the right.
Our process for protecting ideas and determining if there's a market:
Our staff comb through Tulane publications, pre-award grant submissions and attend lab meetings, seminars, and poster sessions to identify early-stage innovations.
Innovation Institute and Office of Intellectual Property Management staff walk inventors through the new online disclosure process, the formal kickoff for technology assessment and protection.
Your technologies and ideas are evaluated, with the end result being an initial plan for how to best move them forward.
We file a provisional patent on promising technologies, starting a year-long process of deeper technology evaluation and planning. This initial protection allows you to publish and present your findings while still having protected IP.
Customer Discovery and additional market research are conducted to allow for informed decision-making around investment in the technology. This information is shared with inventors to allow them to make the best decisions possible for the technology.
Provisional patents are converted to non-provisional patents after one year.
Technologies need partners to develop, and this is where we identify them. This is also when inventors must begin to make concrete decisions about whether or not to form a startup company as a university spinout.
