Under UH Executive Policy 12.205, UH may have ownership rights in your IP if:

• You are a UH employee, student or otherwise affiliated with UH and/or;
• The IP was developed using UH equipment, facilities, funds or other resources.

For copyrights: UH employees have exclusive rights to original works of authorship unless it is a “work for hire” or subject to any restrictions by sponsors. “Work for hire” is defined as a work:

• Commissioned by UH and prepared by an employee who is hired or assigned to specifically produce such work; or
• Prepared by a person (not a regular UH employee) that is specifically commissioned by UH and has signed a written agreement that provides that the work is a work for hire.

To disclose an invention, you may use the online Innovator Portal or download a fillable Word document. Completed and signed disclosures can be emailed to uhott@hawaii.edu, faxed to 808-956-9150 or mailed to OTT at 2425 Campus Road, Sinclair 10, Honolulu, HI 96822. Signatures of all UH inventors and their immediate supervisor is required.

Submit a disclosure form when you have discovered something unique and before presenting it via publication, presentation or other ways of publicizing the discovery. Be sure to let OIC know of your plans to publish or talk to anyone besides the innovators about your invention. Publicly disclosing your innovation may lead to a loss of protection for your innovation.

Rights to any intellectual property coming out of a sponsored research project depends on the research agreement. The U.S. government has certain rights to all inventions developed with funding from a federal grant or contract.

If you have co-innovators from other institutions or companies, OIC will contact them and work with their institution or company to agree on the next steps for the innovation.

Log on to the online Innovator Portal with your UH login to check on the status. You can also contact your Technology Licensing Officer (TLO) or email uhott@hawaii.edu for the current status of your disclosure.

A license is a contract in which the owner of intellectual property grants permission to another party to act under all or some of the owners’ rights. OTT negotiates and executes license agreements to grant UH’s rights in an innovation to a third party for a period of time.

Revenues are shared according to UH Executive Policy 12.205 and collective bargaining agreements.

Once OTT receives a completed disclosure, a Technology Licensing Officer (TLO) will contact you in a few weeks to review your disclosure and ensure a thorough understanding of your invention. Based on this information, OTT decides on whether to file a patent application. These first steps will take approximately 2-3 months.

The Bayh-Dole Act is a federal law that allows universities, nonprofit research institutions and small businesses to own, patent and commercialize inventions developed using federal funds. This law created a uniform patent policy among federal agencies funding research (including reporting requirements) and reserves a royalty-free license to the federal government. Bayh-Dole regulations are found under Title 37, Section 401 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

University innovations are typically in the early stages of concept and development and require a significant amount of time and investment in order to commercialize, or translate the innovation to a product for the market. Disclosing your innovation is the first step. **Note: publicly sharing your invention before filing a patent application may lead to a loss of protection for your invention.

UH policy also requires that any innovation developed and/or modified through University research, must be disclosed on a timely basis to UH. This allows UH to fulfill its obligations to the federal government under the Bayh-Dole Act and other research sponsors.

Net licensing revenues may be shared with UH innovators, per the UH patent and copyright policy.