Office of Innovation Management

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Intellectual Property (IP)

Intellectual property is a legal concept which refers to certain creations of the mind for which certain exclusive rights are recognized. Common intellectual properties include patents, copyright and trademarks. As a public institution of higher education, the goal of technology transfer at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette is to utilize intellectual property created within the University to stimulate economic development in the State of Louisiana, while enhancing the reputation and impact of the University.

The creator of intellectual property has a duty to promptly and completely report all intellectual property in which the University has an ownership interest, that has the potential to be brought into practical use for the public benefit, or for which disclosure is required by law.

Note: Disclosure must be made even if the work was done on personal time, or while consulting for a private business or public agency or away from the university campus.

What is considered to be Intellectual Property?

Intellectual Property is defined as inventions, discoveries, know how, show-how, processes, unique materials, copyrightable works, original data, and other creative or artistic works that have value. Intellectual property includes anything that can be protected by statute or legislation, such as patents, copyrights, trademarks, service marks, trade secrets, mask works, and plant variety protection certificates. It also includes the physical embodiments of intellectual effort and tangible research (e.g., models, prototypes, machines, devices, designs, drawings, apparatus, instrumentation, circuits, semiconductor chips, computer programs and visualizations, biological materials, chemicals, other compositions of matter, plants, and records of research). See also UL Lafayette Intellectual Property Policy.

Why is this important?

It is desirable to encourage the broad utilization of the results of academic research by bringing innovative findings to practical application. The primary purpose of developing intellectual property is to provide the necessary protections and incentives to encourage both the discovery and development of new knowledge and its transfer for the public benefit; a secondary purpose is to enhance the generation of revenue for the University and the creators.