To Report or Not to Report: Best Practices for Subject Invention Determinations

Every technology transfer office faces this challenge: an invention disclosure submission comes in, it may not include sufficient detail, the funding picture is murky, and the clock may already be running. Bayh-Dole gives you a standard (conception or reduction to practice, in the performance of work under a federal funding agreement), but applying it in real time, under deadline pressure, is where things get hard…and getting it wrong can mean compliance headaches, lost rights, or unnecessary reporting burdens.

This practical, in-depth program will help guide your TTO to making sound, defensible subject invention determinations, and understanding why that call is fundamentally different from deciding whether you want to move forward with protection and commercialization efforts.

Key Discussion Topics:

• Understanding the disjunctive conception-or-reduction-to-practice standard
• Why the subject invention determination is distinct from a go/no-go decision or patentability assessment
• Racing the clock: what Bayh-Dole’s 2-month reporting deadline means for your internal process
• Why these determinations demand cross-functional input — compliance, scientific, and legal perspectives are all required
• Building an internal workflow that gets the right people together quickly
• Common pitfalls that lead to late, missed, or incorrect determinations

Who Should Watch:

Technology transfer professionals from all functional teams and roles, institutional legal counsel, outside legal counsel working with research organizations, and PIs at universities, national labs, and other institutions managing federally funded research — particularly anyone involved in invention disclosure submission, intake and assessment, or federal compliance and reporting processes.

If your institution has ever scrambled to pull together the right people to make a subject invention determination before the 2-month deadline, this session will help you build a more confident and effective process.

Program Leaders