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We are eager to promote entrepreneurship and to foster economic development. As a result, technologies may be licensed both to established companies and to start-ups. When a technology presents an opportunity for start-ups, we happily work with newly formed or already-established start-ups.

For more information about our available technologies and research capabilities, we encourage you to contact the Director of External Collaboration. Only by knowing your specific needs are we able to match you with our various resources (faculty expertise, new technologies, or unique research resources).

If you identify a promising technology and would like more detailed information, please request our standard non-disclosure agreement (NDA), fill-in the relevant information, and then fax or email us the completed, partially signed agreement for our countersignature. Once the NDA is in place, we'll be able to describe the technology in greater detail.

����ֱ�� can often assist companies with product development, and we are amenable to collaborative arrangements such as company-sponsored research or arranging access to our unique research facilities and equipment.

Contact the Director of External Collaboration for more information.

Who creates inventions?

The researcher (faculty, staff, or student) who made a creative contribution to at least one of the issued claims in a patent created an invention. Someone who assisted the inventor, such as a lab technician or student who ran tests directed by the inventor, did not create an invention. Inventorship is defined under patent law. Sometimes, inventorship cannot be determined until the patent is issued—claims may change during prosecution (if, for example, certain claims get disallowed).

Why must I (and should I) disclose my inventions and discoveries?

Disclosing your inventions and discoveries is a requirement of being a employee of the ����ֱ��. If your research was funded in whole or in part by a federal, state, or industrial grant/contract, you are required to file a Technology Disclosure of a possible invention under terms of the grant. The University in turn, is required to notify the sponsor. For federal grants, the University must report the invention to the sponsoring agency within 60 days and actively work to commercialize the technology. This is to meet the requirement that federally funded inventions should be licensed for commercial development. If the invention has commercial value, not disclosing the invention can lead to loss of royalty income that is shared by the institution with the inventor(s) according to its policies.

When should I disclose my inventions and discoveries?

You should file the Technology Disclosure Form as soon as you realize your research has uncovered something new and useful—two of the key elements for patentability. While the experimental work need not be complete, a clear and complete written description is required. A working model is not required. Drawings and a written description are sufficient.

When can a researcher publish his/her findings?

Researchers are generally free to publish or make public disclosures of their findings at any time, in any media of their choice, limited only by other previously entered contractual obligations. However, a public disclosure can destroy most non-U.S. patent rights immediately if the patent application has not already been filed. U.S. rights are lost if the patent application is not filed within twelve months of the publication or presentation or someone else files the patent application first. In most cases, filing a U.S. patent application before the first publication or presentation will temporarily preserve the right to file outside the U.S. It is best to consult with the Director for External Collaboration before any publication is submitted, if there might be a possible valuable invention being disclosed in it.

Can ����ֱ�� employees buy stock in the companies whose main line of business is based on the technologies licensed from ����ֱ��?

No, especially for those employees whose departments were directly or indirectly involved in licensing the technology. However, the inventor(s) or creator(s) of intellectual property licensed to a start-up company may be given shares in the start-up company as part of their share of the Royalty Income the University receives.

Can a ����ֱ�� employee or their family own a company doing research with ����ֱ��?

There is a procedure for the university to contract with a member of the faculty, research staff, or an employee or where a member of their family has an financial interest in the company. This contracting is possible under specified circumstances.

References:

• Louisiana R.S. §42:1101 to R.S. §42:1148, especially §42:1111, §42:1112, §42:1113, and §42:1123(10);
• University of Louisiana System Policy Number: M-15;
• ����ֱ�� AP-RE-04.1 Authorizing Contracts Between the University and a Member of the Faculty, Research Staff, or Coaching Staff, or a Company in which the Employee has an Interest Under Specified Circumstances

Laboratory notebooks are the means for keeping a permanent record of the details of an individual’s day-to-day research and development work in the laboratory or office. They provide a basic reference which the individual and others can refer to a later date; legal evidence with respect to the materials recorded, such as conception of an invention and the date thereof or date of reduction to practice and test results; in some instances are required for compliance with the provisions in many grant and contractual arrangements.

Select a notebook with bound and numbered pages. This is extremely important. Loose-leaf notebooks and tablets with tear-out pages are not to be used. Each researcher should have a separate notebook. Notebooks should not be shared.

The ����ֱ�� Bookstore can supply you with a high-quality, bound book entitled Laboratory Notebook. It is manufactured by Boorum & Pease Company (Esselte), order number L21150R. It contains a pre-printed version of these instructions as well as other desirable user aids such as signature and witness lines on every page. This notebook is highly recommended.

If a less expensive notebook is required, the ����ֱ�� Bookstore can supply you with one entitled Computation Notebook. It is manufactured by Avery Dennison, order number 43-648. A label can be obtained to designate this to be a Laboratory Notebook and to record the necessary owner information. If the reader uses this book, a copy of these written procedures should be taped to the inside of the front cover for future reference. One drawback to this book is that it is quadrille printed rather than lined. And the book does not include pre-printed signature and date line reminders on each page. But it is bound and page numbered.

Instructions for Recording Data in the Laboratory Notebook

• All entries should be made in a legible and orderly manner using permanent ink, preferably black. Make entries clear and complete so that someone else could repeat the experiment if necessary.
• Avoid erasures. If an error is made, cross it out and make the correction immediately thereafter. Cancellations or insertions should be initialed, dated, and explained (in the margin, if possible), by an appropriate notation.
• Make sure the control page information is filled out prior to usage.
• State the object and results of each experiment clearly and concisely. Give a complete, factual, and self-explanatory account of the progress of the work and the procedure followed (reference to earlier work done by yourself or another may be accomplished by noting a previous page of the same notebook or the page and number of an earlier notebook). All operating details and conditions should be reordered, indicating yields, conversion, etc., and identifying products. Describe and give quantities of all materials used. Explain all code numbers and abbreviations.
• An entry dealing with a conception (invention, idea) should describe the thing conceived (Example: whether it is a chemical compound, a combination of compounds, a combination of a compound and a solvent, etc.) as well as the utility for the thing conceived, how it is to be used and the method(s) by which it is to be prepared, including equivalent materials which could be used. Statements with regard to utility should be stated positively. Work toward practical implementation of an invention should start as soon as possible after disclosure in a notebook.
• Negative or disparaging entries should be avoided. (Example: If a reaction was expected to produce a 2% yield but instead produced 1%, do not state, "Process does not work"). Phraseology which expresses gratuitous comments or an opinion rather that a positive statement should be avoided. This is not an instruction to omit the conclusion in an experiment which had less than the expected results. Be factual.
• Each day’s work should, whenever possible, be started on a separate page with lines drawn diagonally across the unused portion of the previous page. (This gives legal evidence that additions were not made at a later date.) It is permissible, as stated above, to make reference to an earlier page by reciting “Continued from page…” It is extremely important that each page show the date of entry.
• Each page must be signed and dated by the individual who makes the entry and does the work. In addition, each page should be witnessed (signed and dated), using the notation “Read and Understood”—preferably on the same day, but at least within one week. The witness should not be connected with the conception, should not have taken part in the experimental work performed by another, but should understand the technical field of the entry. Record the project number and the record book number on each page.
• Where two or more individuals make a conception, it need only be entered in the notebook of one, but must be signed and dated by all the conceivers. Ideally, all the individuals should sign on the same day.
• For copying purposes, graphs, charts, analytical data, etc. should be attached to the notebook pages with a permanent adhesive and should, when unfolded, be kept within the confines of the opened notebook. No entries should be made on the page beneath attached sheets and nothing must be obscured. Leave the heading at the top and the space provided for the witnessing signature at the bottom of each page exposed. Inserts should be signed and dated by the person making the entry and witnessed by another to provide the best legal evidence. If materials such as spectra, graphs, etc. are not kept in the notebook, they must be signed, dated, and identified in such a manner as to provide a reference back to the pertinent page(s) of the Laboratory Notebook itself.
• Research notebooks are legal evidence. They should be keep in the laboratory or office in a file cabinet and protected from damage. Report the loss or theft of a research notebook.
• is responsible for archiving of all data and records and providing access. You need a statement indicating where the Notebook(s) will be stored, such as "Original laboratory notebooks will be secured by the PI in his/her campus office or laboratory." Such laboratory notebooks are the property of the University and must be retained by the institution.  The data will be preserved for at least three years beyond the award period, as required by NSF guidelines and in accordance with the institution’s record retention policy.