Disclose an Innovation

Venture Partners at CU Boulder creates and implements an intellectual property (IP) strategy for research, inventions and creative works so University of Colorado innovators can understand their IP rights and obligations as they work with various collaborators, research sponsors and industry partners. Venture Partners manages and funds IP for hundreds of university inventions each year from CU Boulder, UCCS and CU Denver (except CU Denver investigators in the biosciences, who should work with ).

An effective IP strategy is highly dependent on:

  • the area of innovation (for example biotech, advanced materials or software apps),
  • commercialization goals (such as creating a startup or forming an industry partnership),
  • type of IP (such as copyright or patents).

A strong IP strategy provides a competitive advantage and is necessary to attract startup investment or commercial partnerships. While a strong IP strategy is necessary, it alone cannot guarantee that your product will be successful in the market. Once you initiate an IP strategy with our team, we will direct you to other Venture Partners resources so you can learn how to commercialize your innovation successfully. Explore the path to commercialization

New Invention and Copyrighted Material Disclosure Forms

As of June 26, 2024 Venture Partners has moved to a new portal and forms for disclosing eligible inventions and copyrighted materials. If you have questions or experience issues using the new portal or filling out the disclosure forms, we are here to help! Please contact the IP team

Details on IP Management with Venture Partners

Working With Us
  1. If you are a researcher at CU Boulder, UCCS or you are at CU Denver and have a physical science or engineering innovation, you will work with Venture Partners. Researchers at the Anschutz Medical campus and researchers at CU Denver with biosciences innovations will work with . 
  2. To get started, you must first disclose your innovation to Venture Partners by signing in to the Sophia portal and completing the invention or copyright material disclosure forms. It's never too early! 
    1.   Disclosing an innovation allows the IP management team to review it for support and the application of CU’s IP Policies, but it does not impact the IP's real ownership.
  3. Familiarize yourself with CU's IP policy. 
    1.   Disclosing innovations is required for most CU employees for proper compliance with sponsored research and university policy. 
    2.   Employment includes but is not limited to, those receiving salaries, scholarships or fellowships and part-time and student employees. 
    3. Read the full IP policy
  4. After you disclose your innovation to Venture Partners, you will be assigned a case manager who will meet with you to discuss your invention, available resources and a strategy to bring your technology to market.

To bring your invention to market through an industry partnership or startup company, patent and copyright protection can be essential, as they create market exclusivity. Venture Partners will help you obtain patents to support the commercialization of your university innovations.

Patents will be pursued where there is a partnering company (startup or established), and if a partnering company is not yet present, Venture Partners has a finite patent budget that is allocated to the innovations with the highest commercial potential. We will help you identify what resources and milestones are needed to provide a strong case for patenting and commercialization.

The process of obtaining patent funding through Venture Partners is competitive, as our office receives approximately 160-190 new inventions each year. Our patent budget allows us to file U.S. provisional patent applications on about half of these inventions.

Venture Partners will pursue patent rights where dedicated funding is available, such as reimbursement from a company licensing the innovation or Lab Venture Challenge funds. In absence of external funding, Venture Partners will fund patents for innovations with the highest commercial potential and viability. This is a competitive process among the inventions received by Venture Partners.

The specific criteria include:

  • value proposition (does the invention solve a problem that is important to customers?),
  • competitive advantage over existing solutions,
  • market validation (what feedback or traction has there been with potential users of the innovation?),
  • likelihood of patentability (novelty, non-obvious, reduced to practice) and freedom to operate (doesn’t infringe others’ patents),
  • external vetting (for example, commercialization competition outcomes and feedback),
  • and technology readiness (when can the technology be utilized by the intended customer base?).

Complete answers to these criteria are rarely available immediately, but the more information the better. If a provisional patent application is filed, it provides a year to make progress in these areas, and Venture Partners has several resources to help you make progress. Then, as the expense rapidly increases during the years following provisional patent application, a heightened stringency is applied to these criteria.

The optimal strategy is to build commercial attractiveness as quickly as possible while patent costs are lower, and then license to an existing company or create a startup. Venture Partners will help you identify the steps that will build value and secure competitive patent funding, licensees and/or startup funding for your innovation.

As an inventor, you will receive a share of the university’s revenue from licensing your invention.

When Venture Partners licenses an invention, the university may receive revenue in return, in the form of royalties, fees and/or liquidated equity. This is true for licenses to both established companies and startup companies. After direct patent expenses are recovered, and any joint owners of the innovation receive their share, revenue is distributed as follows:

  • 25% to inventor(s)/creator(s), personally
  • 25% to the lab(s) of the inventor(s)/creator(s)
  • 25% to the Chancellor; currently this is used to fund applications to the Lab Venture Challenge and other commercialization grants/gifts
  • 25% to Venture Partners to fund education, mentorship, patent, and funding resources for campus innovators

The IRS has issued a Technical Advice Memorandum (TAM) that may have a significant impact on income tax reporting for royalty payments received by faculty inventors. The university provides a Form 1099 each year to faculty receiving these payments. Download revenue sharing documentation

To manage potential conflicts of interest, make sure to include relevant details of your consulting, third-party employment, and/or startup in your Disclosure of External Professional Activities (DEPA) Form if you want to consult or work for a company, or start your own company. A separate management plan may also be needed (this will be determined after your DEPA is submitted). For guidance and questions, please contact Conflicts of Interest and Commitment (COIC) at coi@colorado.edu.

Add the Standard Addendum for Consulting and Third Party Employment to your consulting agreement or employment agreement with the company. This addendum ensures that your third party activities do not conflict with your obligations to the university.

Venture Partners offers many opportunities for you to find licensees and customers for your innovations. Explore:

In addition, your licensing manager at Venture Partners will help you assess when your innovation is ready to market directly to companies and will then bring in our business development team.

If you want to form a startup, you will need to license your innovation to your startup:

  1. (Most) startups complete a Startup Option Agreement prior to executing a license. The option ensures that the startup has an exclusive period—one year and extendable to two years—during which to license the innovation. The option period provides the startup an opportunity to seek early milestones and traction before determining whether to move ahead with a license.
  2. Learn about licensing for entrepreneurs and startups through Licensing with EASE® (Express Agreement for Startup Entrepreneurs), which is an investor-approved, pre-negotiated deal that makes licensing fast and easy!

Venture Partners offers many opportunities for you to grow as an entrepreneur, build your company and find funding. Explore:

IP and Licensing Team

For general inquiries about IP management, please email vpcontact@colorado.edu.