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application procedure
All research institutions have established administrative procedures for taking over inventions. They may vary.
The basic procedure is as follows:
Reporting the invention
The inventor reports the invention to his/her research manager or directly to the local patent office on a form which can be obtained from the patent office.
Meeting with the patent board
The inventor and sometimes the head of the research-group will be invited to meet with the patent board, where the invention is introduced.
Decision
The institution makes a decision whether it wants to take over the invention.
The inventor is informed about that decision no later than 2 months after the invention has been reported (unless some other agreement is made).
Preliminary investigation
If the institution chooses to take over the invention, often a preliminary investigation is carried out to determine whether the invention is patentable.
The investigation is carried out by a patent bureau in collaboration with the inventor. If the result is positive, the patent bureau and the inventor will draw up and send in a patent application.
Commercial probing
At the same time, commercial probing will begin. This often results in contacts with a small number of potential licensees and collaboration partners.
It is very advantageous if the inventor is active also in this phase of the proceedings.
International patent application
12 months after submission of the patent application, the so-called priority year ends, during which it is possible to update the patent application.
Normally it is important that the institution allocates resour-ces during the priority year to support or demonstrate the claims contained in the patent application - preferably in collaboration with a company that wishes to commercialise the invention.
An international patent application is submitted, often via the so-called PCT system, which in principle will later provide the possibility of issuing a patent in more than 100 countries.
Publication
18 months after the submission of the patent application, it will be published.
The case hearing
24-36 months after submission of the patent application, those national authorities to whom the application has been submitted will begin the case hearing proper.
The national authorities will issue the final patent.
