Although the University owns intellectual property created by its faculty, staff, and other employees, any revenues derived from that intellectual property are shared generously with the inventor or author, as described below. In addition, University ownership means that the University, not the inventor or author, pays for protecting the intellectual property through patents or other means. In keeping with long-standing tradition and consistent with academic freedom, the University does not claim rights to textbooks by faculty authors. Nor does the University claim rights to inventions by its employees unrelated to their University responsibilities and invented without use of University facilities. But employee inventions related to University responsibilities do fall under the Regents' policy, even if those inventions were made or perfected off-campus.
Disclosure is required.
Employees at CU are bound by University of Colorado Policy on Patents and Inventions, which requires disclosure of discoveries and inventions. An invention disclosure is a written document that describes an invention. It should be in sufficient detail to permit evaluation of the invention in terms of its scientific and technical merit, whether or not the invention can be protected, and its commercial value. Invention disclosure forms are available from our office. Invention Processing Technology Analysis.