Innovate UNCG Research Radar 8.21.26

Protecting Your Discoveries: What Every Researcher Should Know

Innovation happens across every discipline at UNCG, not just in labs with beakers and instruments. A novel teaching methodology, a new algorithm, a therapeutic compound, a data analysis framework, or a diagnostic tool can all carry intellectual property (IP) value worth protecting, both for the institution and for the researcher’s own recognition and potential royalty interest.

Forms of Intellectual Property

• Patents protect new and useful inventions, processes, compositions of matter, and improvements. Utility patents (the most common form in research settings) cover how something works or is made.
• Copyrights protect original works of authorship, including software code, written materials, and creative works.
• Trademarks protect names, logos, and symbols associated with a product or service.
• Trade secrets protect confidential information that provides competitive value specifically because it is kept confidential, such as certain formulations or processes.

Most faculty research that leads to commercialization involves patents, so understanding the disclosure timeline for patentable inventions is particularly important.

When Should You File?

File an invention disclosure as soon as you believe you have developed something new, useful, and non-obvious, even if the work is still in progress. You do not need a finished product or a fully validated result to disclose. Common triggers for filing include:

• Developing a new method, compound, device, or system
• Creating software or an algorithm with potential application outside your own research
• Improving on an existing technology or process in a non-obvious way
• Preparing to submit a manuscript, present at a conference, or otherwise publicly share results tied to a potentially patentable discovery

When in doubt, disclose. Innovate UNCG can help determine whether something is protectable; that determination is not something researchers need to make on their own.

What to Do if You Discover Something

1. Do not publicly disclose first. Hold off on publications, presentations, posters, and even detailed conversations outside your research team until you have talked with Innovate UNCG.
2. Submit an invention disclosure through Innovate UNCG as early as possible, even with incomplete data.
3. Meet with the Innovate UNCG team to discuss the discovery’s potential, the patent process, and next steps.
4. Stay engaged through the process. Patent prosecution can take months to years, and inventor input often remains valuable throughout.

Questions? Contact Innovate UNCG early in your research process. Early conversations, even about ideas that may not go anywhere, are always welcome and never a wrong step.

Research & Innovation Spotlight

Celebrating Our 2025-26 Patent Award Recipients

The Division of Research and Engagement is proud to recognize the following faculty inventors who were awarded patents during the 2025-26 academic year. Their work reflects the depth and range of innovation happening across UNCG’s research enterprise.

Congratulations to each of these inventors on this significant milestone. Their achievements underscore the strength and diversity of UNCG’s research portfolio, spanning nanoscience, chemistry, and kinesiology, and demonstrate the tangible, protectable value of faculty discovery.