Inventions and patenting at LION

Inventions and patenting at LION A patentable invention is a new idea to build an apparatus/device or a new means/process to come to a certain technological result. Proof-of-principle is not mandatory. Inventions have the following three characteristics: it is new worldwide, it contains a non-trivial inventive step, applying the invention has potential economic value.

As soon as you expect that you have done a patentable invention, please contact your supervisor and discuss the matter. Make sure you identify the inventive step in the invention, and the persons that have contributed to that inventive stap.

Then please contact the institute manager for an invention disclosure interview. If your idea stands an in-house check, we will send the disclosure form to LURIS (Leiden University Research and Innovation Services), who will advise on whether to apply for a patent on this invention. If so, the patent application will be written by a professional patent officer. Your time investment will be roughly 2 hours talking to this officer. You need not spend any money nor any more time on this.

If necessary, a patent application can be sent to the patent office within roughly 2 weeks, after which you can freely talk and publish about your invention. There is no need for secrecy, nor will any publication/thesis defense be hampered or delayed by this procedure.

After applying for a patent, we will try to find a user (mostly in industry) who is interested in exploiting the knowledge described in the patent. In that stage, of course help from you is much appreciated. If we cannot find a user within 30 months who is willing to co-develop the new technology described by the patent, we will withdraw the patent.

Mijke Zachariasse
LION institute manager
zachariasse@physics.leidenuniv.nl