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Patents Corner
Record Keeping for Inventions
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by Becky Mahurin
In the United States, unlike much of the rest of the world, patents
are allowed on the basis of first to invent, not first to
file. Therefore, accurate and detailed record-keeping is essential to
establishing the date the invention is conceived and reduced to
practice. The following principles are important elements of good
record-keeping:
- Make timely entries in a bound notebook with consecutively
numbered pages.
- Record laboratory data, drawings, and complete description
of problem, solution, and design.
- Always use ink. Never erase. Draw lines through mistakes
and unused space then initial and date.
- Include both successful and unsuccessful experiments.
- Make regular entries, explain any lapses in
experimentation due to vacation, equipment availability,
etc.
- Sign and date all entries.
- Have each entry or each block of entries signed and dated
by a witness who understands the experiment, but who is not a
coinventor.P
- Permanently attach to your notebook any additional
documentation such as graphs, pictures, etc. Again, sign and
date each piece.
- An invention disclosure filed with the technology transfer
office is used by university inventors as additional evidence
of invention.
Many of the above practices are those you already use routinely in
your laboratory notebook. These practices are essential in the
patenting process and may determine the validity of a patent when more
than one patent is filed on the same or related discoveries.
If you have questions, call me at 994-7868. Next month I'll discuss important elements of nondisclosure or secrecy agreements in the patent process.
Becky Mahurin
Director of the Technology Transfer Office at MSU
© 2000 Montana State University-Bozeman
Discovery February 1995
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