Discoveries by faculty, staff and student personnel are the property of The University of Mississippi and should be reported promptly to the ORSP Division of Technology Management (DTM) according to the UM Patent and Invention Policy.  This can be accomplished using the Research Disclosure Form (click here for Forms Download page).

Once submitted to DTM, a Research Disclosure undergoes the following processing (a PDF of this flowchart can be found here):

One of the primary factors in evaluating a research disclosure is whether a patent and literature search has been performed for the technology.  These searches have two main goals.

1. To determine if a patent has already issued or been filed claiming  all or part of your technology.
2. To determine if a patent, published patent application or published literature in any way describes  all or part of your technology.

Both of these efforts help us describe what is called “prior art” for the technology.  An assessment of the prior art is necessary to evaluate both possible patent protection and commercial development.

UM personnel submitting research disclosures can help facilitate our evaluation by performing these searches and providing relevant references at the time their disclosure is submitted.  Your review and evaluation of the prior art and competing technologies is invaluable when contemplating patent protection options.

There are several electronic databases that are useful in performing a patent and literature search.  Below are some of the most common resources that are recommended by our office:

Patent Search Tools

US Patent and Trademark Office

This site allows you to search both issued patents and published pending applications filed in the United States. It is important to check both areas of the database for a complete prior art evaluation.

World International Property Office (WIPO)

This site allows you to search published international applications, even if not filed in the U.S.  All prior art references are relevant during patent prosecution, so it is important to check this site, in addition to the USPTO site.

Google Patent Search

This new function within the Google family of websites allows users to search issued U.S. patents in PDF format.  Please note that published pending applications, international applications, and recently issued patents are not available at this time through this site.

Literature Search Tools

Scirus

Science specific search engine providing results from both journal and web sources.

PubMed

Service provided by the National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health.  Integrated search engine with a variety of mechanisms resulting in citations from Medline and other scientific journals.

LexisNexis® Academic

Search engine with fields for general, legal (patents) and news.

SciFinder Scholar

Search by research topic, author name, company name, chemical structure, molecular formula or browse all.