Our experienced technology transfer team guides the translation of early-stage research ideas through the commercialization process, assists with intellectual property protection when appropriate, and develops the best commercialization strategy for each technology – licensing to industry or forming start-up companies.
The first step toward developing an idea into a new product or forming a new company around your technology is to contact us by email or phone, or to complete our Record of Invention form. We strongly advise that you contact our team before your idea or discovery is publicly disclosed through a publication, verbal/poster presentation or funded grant application. We will work with you to protect your idea or discovery in a timely fashion without delaying your publication or presentation.
An inventor must be careful while discussing ideas with industry. You should try to discuss only data that are already published and are in the public domain. If you need to disclose the proprietary information, please contact our office and we will help you enter into a confidentiality agreement (CDA) with the company prior to your meeting or conference call. Please note that inventors cannot sign confidentiality agreements on behalf of Fox Chase–they must be signed by the institution.
After we receive your invention disclosure, we will meet or speak with you to discuss your invention in more detail to evaluate its patentability and commercial potential. After a thorough analysis, we will decide whether it is or is not beneficial for the institution to patent your idea. The patenting process is managed by an outside patent counsel who, in consultation with the inventor(s) and our team, will draft and file a patent application. Note that in addition to patentable inventions, we also manage matters involving copyrights, trademarks and tangible research materials, which include biological materials, such as cell lines, plasmids and antibodies, chemical compounds, and other Fox Chase materials developed in your laboratory.
After the technology is adequately protected, we contact companies that might be interested in licensing the right to use, make or sell the invention and/or are interested in sponsoring further research in your laboratory. We negotiate exclusive and non-exclusive licenses depending on the invention. Under these license agreements, Fox Chase grants a company the right to "make, use and sell" products in a particular field based on the licensed technology. Equitable terms are negotiated between the company, and our technology transfer team will ensure that a given technology is aggressively developed into a product that benefits the public. At the same time, the financial rewards reaped by Fox Chase are used to promote further research. The company benefits by reducing its research and developments, ameliorating the risk associated with R&D, and gaining the exclusivity needed to bring a product to market. Fox Chase shares the royalty revenue it receives under a license agreement with technology inventors, according to Fox Chase’s Intellectual Property Policies and Procedures Policy.
In some cases, a company may wish to evaluate the technology and its commercial feasibility for a limited period of time before entering into a license agreement. We can provide that opportunity under an option agreement that allows the company to assess the commercial potential and decide whether they want to license the technology.
Useful links
- For Industry
- For Investigators/Inventors
- Record Of Invention (ROI) forms for (a) Patentable Technologies and (b) Tangible Research Materials: please contact our Technology Transfer team (contact info below) to obtain the appropriate ROI form template.
- United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO):
- USPTO Patent process overview
- USPTO Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) page on novelty, non-obviousness, and prior art by the inventors
- NIH Grant Policy on confidentiality of grants/grant reports
Contact:
- Natalia Shalginskikh, Ph.D
Licensing Associate, Technology Transfer
215-214-2787
[email protected] - Tatiana Venkova, Ph.D.
Licensing Associate, Technology Transfer
215-983-0257
[email protected]