As an entrepreneurial university, Ball State places a high priority on encouraging its faculty, staff, and students to develop innovative solutions, ideas, and products that can benefit society.


UNIVERSITY RESOURCES:

Ball State offers many resources to help researchers and innovators bring their concepts to reality and/or the marketplace. Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA) helps bring to the public discoveries and creative works developed by faculty, staff, and students through University programs and resources. Through these activities, Ball State realizes its goal to foster engagement with local, state, national, and international communities, while rewarding authors, inventors, and their academic departments and units for their creative contributions.


DISCLOSURE PROCESS:

1. Submit an Intellectual Property Disclosure Form

The purpose of this form is to record and examine works of intellectual property that have potential commercial value. This process includes decisions about ownership, market impact, licensing, and if applicable, patenting. All documents submitted to the Technology Transfer Office (TTO) are treated as confidential, including technical and personal information submitted within this Intellectual Property Disclosure Form. The questions in this form are designed to assist you in the disclosure process. Please complete each section as thoroughly as possible.

Please click here to complete an IP Disclosure Form in InfoReady
This form should be submitted prior to any publication or public disclosure of your work.

2. Contact from SPA/Referral

After submission and review of your Intellectual Property Disclosure Form, SPA will contact you regarding the status of your disclosure and provide feedback regarding the development, licensing, or commercialization of your intellectual property.


PATENT INVESTMENT PROCESS AND CRITERIA:

Ball State carefully evaluates disclosures of potentially patentable inventions, methods, and technologies to determine whether a work is suitable for protection and/or commercialization. Obtaining a patent is a resource-intensive process and requires support from an inventor’s college, along with the endorsement of Ball State’s Vice Provost for Research. To learn more about this process or if you have further questions, please contact Stephanie Roof, Associate Director of Strategic Initiatives.