Invention Disclosure

Use the online disclosure form to submit invention disclosures. 

If you have any questions regarding these forms, please call 617-253-6966 or email tlo@mit.edu for more information. 

Inventions and Proprietary Information Agreements (IPIA)

The IPIA protects MIT's intellectual property rights and allows inventors to retain ownership of certain intellectual property. Consistent with federal regulations (35 U.S.C. § 206 (the “Bayh-Dole Act”), 37 CFR 401), sponsored research obligations, and MIT IP Policy, everyone who can participate in research opportunities at MIT (i.e., faculty, research staff, students) must sign the IPIA. Persons who have signed an IPIA that was drafted prior to April 10, 2010 must sign an updated version. Contact the TLO to learn more or visit this page for more detailed information. Some researchers can sign the IPIA via Atlas; others must sign the IPIA in hard copy (forms available below).

Who Can Sign Via Atlas?

Faculty, staff (including visitors, research affiliates and fellows, and Media Lab), graduate students (including fellows and Media Lab), and undergraduates (including minors) with a valid MIT Kerberos ID may sign the IPIA via Atlas (MIT certificates required). The executed IPIA will be automatically sent to the signatory and to the TLO with a note to the DLC primary HR contact. If you cannot sign through Atlas, you may also sign through DocuSign. 

Visitors and research affiliates will be prompted to print their IPIA, and present to their home institution or employer for an authorized signature (usually counsel, or Tech Transfer Office equivalent). See IPIA Guidance for Visitors for more information or contact the TLO. 

What to do if your appointment has not yet been approved? 

Anyone whose appointment has not yet been approved by the appropriate Dean’s Office must sign the IPIA by printing the IPIA from the forms below. Please send the IPIA to tlo-ipia@mit.edu only when the MIT ID and email address have been inserted. 

Anyone transferring from a current appointment to a visiting or research affiliate appointment (e.g., graduate students or postdoctoral associates) must sign a Visitor IPIA form. Please send the IPIA to tlo-ipia@mit.edu only when the MIT ID and email address have been inserted. 

Marie Curie Fellows must sign a specific version of the IPIA that was negotiated with the European Commission.

Individuals participating in specific research initiatives maybe asked to sign an IPIA unique to that program. If you think this applies, please contact the TLO with the name of the sponsor and principal investigator or the sponsor account number (if you have it). Contact the TLO with questions.

IPIA Forms:

MIT IPIA (MIT faculty, staff, and graduate students)

MIT Visitor IPIA (visiting scientists, research affiliates, and visiting graduate students)

Thesis Waiver

MIT does not assert rights to your thesis if it was authored without sponsored research funds and without significant use of MIT-administered facilities or funds. Submit the Thesis Waiver form if you feel MIT cannot or should not claim copyright ownership to your thesis. 

Where you retain copyright ownership in your thesis, you must, as condition of a degree award, grant royalty free permission to MIT to reproduce and publicly distribute copies of the thesis and must place the following legend on the thesis title page or page immediately following: 

“The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part.”

Non-Disclosure Agreements

If you want to disclose or share confidential information relating to an existing patent application or potential licensing opportunity, the TLO can draft and negotiate a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to guide those conversations. An NDA obligates each party to clearly label confidential information as being “Confidential” and to use the confidential information only for a specific purpose. Before you initiate any conversations regarding confidential information, you should contact your Technology Licensing Officer or the TLO. 

A request for an NDA relating to potential research or sponsorship activities should be directed to OSATT's NDA Portal.

Material Transfer Agreements

If you want to transfer research materials to a third party or exchange them with a collaborator, you need to think about protecting your research rights. A Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) describes the terms under which you can share and receive tangible materials with researchers at other universities or with industry, typically for research or evaluation purposes. 

See more information regarding MTAs here.

Exchange of materials for research purposes is handled by OSATT Core. To submit a request for an incoming MTA to receive materials, click here. To submit a request for an outgoing MTA to send materials, please send an email to mtainfo@mit.edu.  

Ownership

If you would like to request a determination of IP ownership please reach out to tlo@mit.edu.

Seperately, to initiate a request for assignment of MIT IP, please contact tlo@mit.edu and reference the applicable MIT case number(s).