Research and Graduate Studies

USU’s Office of Commercialization and Regional Development invites faculty, staff and students to submit their inventions for possible patent and development assistance. An invention or intellectual property is defined as “the discovery or creation of a new material (either manufactured product or a new composition or matter), a new process, a new use for an existing material, or any improvements of any of these.”

The Intellectual Property (IP) Services is a university unit within the Office of Commercialization and Regional Development that is fully dedicated to helping USU inventors protect their intellectual property. The IP Service team consists of two in-house IP attorneys as well as a patent and trademark office agent.

Faculty, staff and students can submit invention disclosures using the USU Inventor Portal. The IP Services will evaluate disclosure based on market, patent and commercial potential.

“If the intellectual property has market value, we’d like to commercialize that,” said Robert Behunin, vice president for commercialization and regional development. “We’d like to partner with industry leaders to make sure that the intellectual property succeed in the marketplace.”

The following services are offered by IP Services to manage the commercial aspects of creative works at USU and assist inventors in understanding technology transfer:
• creating the appropriate forms and procedures for disclosing creative works
• helping inventors complete these forms and review all disclosures
• evaluating the legal validity and commercial appeal of potential inventions and ideas
• formulating development plans for meritorious creative works
• marketing the concepts to private industry
• facilitating the formation of new business
• assisting in securing development funding for promising technologies

Behunin said that over the last two years, USU has successfully commercialized the inductive power transfer and the Aggie Bus, USU’s wirelessly charged electric bus. He also said faculty, staff and students are welcome to visit the Office of Commercialization and Regional Development to get more information on IP Services.

“We’d love to answer your questions and help you turn your protected valuable IP into a viable and marketable product that really could, in some ways, change the world,” he said.

IP Services managers will support USU community members as they disclose their novel technologies and assist in technology commercial development. They will also ensure that all obligations to sponsoring entities are met. For more information on IP services, visit http://ipso.usu.edu/htm/about.

- Nadiah Johari 

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