The Cornell Center for Technology Enterprise and Commercialization (CTEC) has developed a portal on its website called MyIP that continually updates information on patenting status, licensing status and marketing status for its inventors. When an inventor logs on, explains Alan Paau, CLP, MBA, PhD, executive director and vice provost for technology transfer & economic development at Cornell, they see a listing of all the inventions they have disclosed to the TTO. “They can quickly see which ones are active; which are not, and who the responsible professionals on our staff are,” he says. “Once they click on any disclosure, they will have additional options. For example, they can find out the patent status; they can actually drill down all the way to details like applications filed, office actions — all those things.” Paau says TTOs must strike a fine balance when communicating with faculty. “We have to approach them with the appearance that we are not trying to hide anything from them, that we’re glad to let them know what’s happening to their invention, but we do not want to just bombard them with information,” he explains. “Instead, we want to allow them to look up information whenever they have the time.”

This is a very important aspect of the portal, he continues, because faculty members are so busy. “Some of them actually log on to the site at 1:30 at night,” he notes. “They can have all the information they need, but we do not ram it down their throats. They can go to the level of detail they like and do it whenever it’s convenient for them.” A detailed article on MyIP appears in the April 2009 issue of Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor. For subscription information, CLICK HERE.

Posted April 7th, 2009 under Intellectual Property Marketing

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