How to Disclose an Invention

1. Contact Meryle Melnicoff, Director of Business Development, to talk about your work and the anticipated discovery and to schedule a meeting.

2. Bring with you to the meeting a short description of your research; this could be in the form of a draft manuscript or grant application if available.

3. After the meeting you may be asked to complete an Invention Disclosure Form. Following are some of the questions that will be considered when completing this form.

• What is the closest "prior art," for example, publications of others, your own publications, commercially or publicly available products that are similar or operate on similar principles to your invention?
  
  
• What is the invention's usefulness?
  
  
• Who are the inventors (not technical assistants but those who intellectually contributed to the end product)? When in doubt, please include everyone who worked on the project because the patent attorney has the legal responsibility to determine inventorship.
  
  
• When did you first "conceive" the idea of the invention?
  
  
• Did you disclose the idea to any non Wistar personnel?
  
  
• When did you reduce the idea to a concrete form? Or if you did not reduce it to a concrete form, could you describe how to obtain the invention in words that would enable one of skill in your art to reproduce the invention?
  
  
• Are there any publications, published abstracts, or presentations made at public meetings that describe or mention the invention?