Physics research often generates not just new ideas but also new intellectual property (IP). However, group leaders in Physics can often use guidance on best practices for IP issues and, while some physics graduate students will continue in basic research, the majority will move to applied work or to closely connected fields in the commercial sector. In these latter career paths, an understanding of intellectual property (IP) and its commercialization is often centrally important. The purpose of this talk is to give an initial overview of IP put into the context of UW’s support for the declaration and commercialization of IP developed at the UW.
UW’s CoMotion office is here to help you bring your innovations to impact. We partner with UW researchers to enable the transition of fundamental discoveries to into real-world products by providing you support across the commercialization pathway. This includes IP strategy (patents, copyright, software, know-how), customer development, training, funding, mentorship, and startup incubation.
In this presentation, I’ll survey the role of CoMotion and discuss the different ways that Physicists curious about commercialization can gain more information, including:
- Idea to Plan and NSF Regional ICORPS to validate customer need,
- the UW’s Innovation Gap Fund to further commercial development of the technology,
- guidance for federal funding such as SBIR,
- CoMotion’s Plan to Launch workshop for getting ready for startup company launch,
- and CoMotion Labs for incubation of your startup.
With more than 300 startup companies to date and a strong record of supporting ventures of all kinds, CoMotion offers the infrastructure, expertise, and community needed to move cutting edge innovations from lab to marketplace.