The university strongly encourages scholarly publication of the results of faculty and student research.  Though the Patent and Copyright Policies do not limit the right to publish, except for short periods of time necessary to protect patent rights, publication or public use of an invention constitutes a statutory bar to the granting of a United States patent for the invention unless a patent application is filed within one year of the date of such publication or public use.  Publication or public use also can be an immediate bar to patent ability in certain foreign countries.

In order to preserve rights in unpatented inventions, it shall be the duty of the inventor, or of the inventor’s supervisor if the inventor is not available to make such report, to report forthwith to the university legal counsel any publication, submission of manuscript for publication, sale, public use, or plans for sale or public use, of an invention, if a disclosure has previously been filed.  If an invention is disclosed to any person who is not employed by the university or working in cooperation with the university upon that invention, a record shall be kept of the date and extent of the disclosure, the name and address of the person to whom the disclosure was made, and the purpose of the disclosure.

After disclosure to the patent committee, the inventor shall promptly notify the university legal counsel of the acceptance for publication of any manuscript describing the invention or of any sale or public use made or planned by the inventor.