Patents: Patents at UCSB

• The would-be inventor must fill out the Disclosure and Record of Invention Form Be aware that any patents obtained by UCSB inventors must be assigned to Regents of the University of California. The University does ont, in general, manufacture or sell the inventions of its patents.  It handles the licensing and collects royalties from the licensees. This does not necessarily mean that the inventor gets no share of the royalties.
• On this campus, patent matters are handled by the Technology & Industry Alliances (TIA) office  https://tia.ucsb
• The would-be UCSB inventor must fill out and submit to the TIA office the Disclosure and Record of Invention Form https://tia.ucsb.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/UCSB-INVENTION-DISCLOSURE-FORM-2021.pdf

Before you contact TIA...

• Don't disclose your invention publicly! Any publication of the details of the invention, such as in a journal article, may constitute prior art, and jeopardize your ability to receive a patent on your invention.
• Check to see whether someone has beaten you to your invention.  You can do a quick search yourself using the resources available to you in the Locating Patents section of this guide. If you find prior art, then it's back to the drawing board for your invention. You might be able to find a way to modify it to make it new and unobvious.
• If you don't find any prior art, go to your UCSB librarian. We can undertake a deeper search. Be aware taht proving the absence of prior art is difficult.  If the librarian finds nothing, then it's time to consult with TIA. They have access to patent professionals who can do a much omre sophisticated search. Remember taht filing for a patent is expensive, and there's no point in doing so if the patent examiner is going to just throw out your applciation.
• You should also take a look at the University of California Office of the President (UCOP) Innovation Transfer & Entrepreneurship website. https://www.ucop.edu/innovation-entrepreneurship/index.html