[COMMERCIALIZATION PROCESS]

Step 1: Commercial Assessment

Commercial assessment of your discovery (also referred to as "invention," "technology," or "intellectual property" -- IP for short) -- begins once you contact PARTEQ. 

A member of our commercialization team will meet with you, in confidence, to talk to you about your technology and to brief you on the overall process.

Here is how the assessment process works:

1. Contact PARTEQ
There are many potential "eureka" points in research. You may want to think about contacting us when:
• You are conceiving, testing or completing research using public funds.
• You are applying for further public grants to continue research in a particular application or area, e.g., NSERC, CIHR, MMO, CITO, etc.
• You are entering/completing a research contract with a disclosure obligation or with an option fulfilment to sponsor (i.e., sponsor wishes first rights to the results). (Queen's Office of Research Services may also consult PARTEQ on your behalf.)
• Your discovery has been developed to the point where you are seeking funding for commercialization e.g., CIHR's Proof of Principle, NSERC's Idea 2 Innovation etc.
• Support to your grant application requires a commercialization commitment (e.g., Genome Canada)

2. Fill out a disclosure form
Once you have contacted us you will be asked to complete a confidential Invention Disclosure Form, which will help both you and us start thinking about protecting and commercializing your invention. This form should also be signed by your department head, who acts as a witness and helps to establish the date of your invention.

>> View disclosure form here

3. Commercial assessment begins
PARTEQ undertakes a preliminary assessment of both your technology and the external market to determine its commercial viability. Our services generally include:
- Patent and literature search
- Scientific due diligence
- Patentability opinion
- Market assessment

Our Commercial Development team has 60 days to complete this process and report back to you. At this point, PARTEQ may:

• Recommend further review of its potential at a later point in your research;
• Return the technology to you, the inventor, leaving you free to pursue commercialization on your own; or
• Proceed with a detailed assessment, the next step in the process.

4. Detailed assessment
If your IP shows commercial potential, PARTEQ will ask you to sign an Intellectual Property Agreement (IPA), which provides a further 90 days to determine if protection will be sought. The IPA also asks you to assign your intellectual property to Queen's, to consolidate title and facilitate commercial negotiations. In turn, this document formalizes your right to a share of the net proceeds generated by your technology.

>> View IPA here

Frequently asked questions:

What is technology transfer?
What is intellectual property (IP)?

What are research contracts?

>> Next step: Protection