The UILO's Process

The UILO works with the inventors or creators of the innovation to assesses the potential of each and generate a strategy to help the innovation reach its maximum impact.

Our internal process includes an evaluation of:

  • Whether the technology is patentable, or otherwise protectable by copyright, and the breadth, enforceability, and freedom to operate of resultant intellectual property is likely to be.
  • Any third-party rights that funders or other collaborators might have in the technology
  • The problem solved by the technology, and what the competitive advantage of the technology is vs. other solutions.
  • The market for the technology, including market size, potential receptor companies
  • Any regulatory issues that need to be addressed during commercialization
  • The societal impact of the technology, and its suitability for commercialization or mobilization according to UBC's global access principles 

If the technology is determined to have a potentially high societal, economic, or financial impact best realized through commercialization, the UILO will work with the research team to develop a strategy that may include: securing intellectual property protection (usually patenting), identifying and obtaining development funding, creating a marketing / investment strategy, working with development organizations (e.g. the Centres for Excellence in Research and Commercialization) to advance the technology, and ultimately licensing or spin-off company formation.

There are a myriad of reasons why a technology may not progress past the assessment phase, generally speaking if an invention disclosure is not considered for further advancement it will be either:

  • Returned to the inventor for further research if it is too early-stage for any type of dissemination, commercialization or intellectual property protection.
  • Closed if there is prior art that will prevent any form of commercialization.
  • Under certain circumstances, where there may be some intellectual property, but little chance of commercialization success due to a limited market opportunity, the UILO can assign the rights to the invention to the inventor(s), so that the inventor(s) can try to independently commercialize the technology.

If the technology is determined to have a potentially high societal, economic, or financial impact best realized through commercialization, the UILO will work with the research team to develop a strategy that may include: securing intellectual property protection (usually patenting), working with development organizations (e.g. the Centres for Excellence in Research and Commercialization) to advance the technology, creating a marketing / investment strategy and ultimately licensing or spin-off company formation.


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