Weekly series helps inventors move ideas to the market
Any patent starts with a great idea, but getting a patent and then licensing and moving the technology to market takes much more than just an idea. Helping Jefferson Lab inventors and potential inventors to navigate that process is the purpose of the Internal Inventor Academy.
The first phase of the Academy consists of a series of weekly internal talks in a lunch-and-learn interactive format, to inform and educate potential inventors on topics including how to submit a disclosure, how the patent process works and how to partner with industry. The second phase includes a series of guest speakers from industry, government and venture capital firms to provide insight and practical information to inventors on how to navigate the process, how to speak (and listen) to potential business partners and how to identify funding sources for technology development.
The internal Inventor Academy began on Aug. 28 and ends Oct. 9, with external speaking events scheduled through the end of the year. This program, the first of its kind at Jefferson Lab, was funded by DOE Energy iCorps site funding, which was designed to help the national labs build and foster entrepreneurship and to help move technologies developed at the labs into the marketplace.
Contact: Deborah Dowd, dowd@jlab.org, 757-269-7180