Technology Opportunities & Ventures (TOV) recognizes the importance of building strong partnerships with NYU and NYU Langone Health innovators, including faculty, post-doctoral researchers, students, and staff. In an effort to improve the services we provide, we’ve developed the NYU Innovators’ “Bill of Rights” as an outline of what can be expected from the TOV team during the IP protection and commercialization process, as well as a communication timeline that we are committed to following.
NYU Innovators’ “Bill of Rights”
- Innovators can expect prompt evaluation of their innovation disclosures and regular communication regarding IP protection and commercialization status of those disclosures.
- Innovators have a right to transparency regarding the practices and procedures comprising the IP protection and commercialization process.
- Innovators have an equal right, based on the merit of the innovation, to institutional consideration and protection of their disclosed and NYU-assigned innovations, regardless of rank or position.
- Innovators have an equal right, based on the merit of the innovation, to TOV’s best efforts to commercialize their disclosed and NYU-assigned innovations, regardless of rank or position.
- Innovators have the right to be informed about and request information about license negotiations.
- Innovators have the right to see all correspondence from the US Patent and Trademark Office related to their innovations, and all attorneys have been instructed to copy innovators directly on such correspondence.
- Innovators have the right to timely responses from TOV based upon the following Communication Timeline:
| Days After Initial Disclosure | Activity |
|---|---|
| Disclosure Received | |
| 7 | Innovator will be contacted by email to set up a meeting. |
| 30 | Meeting occurs. |
| 90 | Strategy communicated to innovators. Generally, in the form of: Go – Pursue IP protection and/or commercialization immediately. Hold – Innovation needs additional work before active innovation management, including formal IP protection, is performed. Stop – Formal IP protection, commercialization, or institutional management will not be pursued by TOV. Innovators may request a release agreement pending obligations to the funding agency or other stakeholders. |
| 180 | Status report. Another Go/Hold/Stop decision point may occur. If IP is filed, the innovator is given an update on the status of the IP, including what marketing has been done on the technology to pursue a licensee. If IP is not filed, the innovator will receive a summary of the innovation’s status from TOV. If Stop, the innovator is informed that TOV will close the file and they will receive a reminder that they can request a release agreement. |
| 365 days and every 180 days thereafter | Brief status report with any changes and Go/Hold/Stop decisions. |
| 730 (2 years) | Request to close file if no IP has been filed. |