Bring Discoveries to Market
Empowering your ideas. Advancing global health.
The Office of Innovation and New Ventures partners with Seattle Children’s researchers, clinicians and innovators to transform groundbreaking discoveries into life-changing treatments and improved health outcomes.
Our Core Capabilities
Our office will work alongside you to provide the guidance and resources necessary to bring your breakthroughs to the marketplace.
- Evaluate and Protect: Together, we assess your discovery’s translational and venture potential while navigating the patent and copyright processes to secure your intellectual property.
- Strategic Market Transfer: We help you transition innovations from the research environment into the marketplace through tailored out-licensing strategies or startup formation.
- Expert Resource Hub: We provide the specialized expertise and industry connections you need to successfully transition your discoveries into viable ventures.
- Mission-Driven Impact: Together, we bring new solutions to patients and families while generating revenue to sustain future research and discovery.
Partner With Us
Researchers, Clinicians and Inventors
Ready to take your discovery to the next level?
The Office of Innovation and New Ventures partners with you to manage, protect and support the transition of discoveries into the real world through corporate engagement, strategic licensing and new venture creation.
Here’s what you need to know about working with us:
Submit Your Discovery
Step 1: Disclose Your Innovation
The journey from discovery to market begins with a formal disclosure. To ensure your invention remains eligible for patent protection, please submit a disclosure form to the Office of Innovation and New Ventures prior to public presentation, publication or poster session. It is always better to disclose earlier, than later.
Not sure where to start? Send us an email and a team member will reach out to you for a consultation.
Step 2: Evaluation
Once you submit a disclosure form, a team member from the Office of Innovation and New Ventures will partner with you to evaluate your invention’s potential. Our team assesses:
- Patentability: Can the idea be legally protected?
- Market Opportunity: Who are the potential users or buyers?
- Intellectual Property Strategy: We then determine the best path for filing patents or copyrights to secure your work.
Step 3: Translation Pathways
Our team works alongside you to navigate the most effective route for invention:
- Strategic Licensing: We leverage our industry networks to identify potential partners to license your invention and bring it to market.
- Venture Creation: We provide the expertise required to support faculty-led startups and new company formation.
Step 4: Real-World Impact
Moving your discovery into the real world creates a cycle of success:
- Revenue: Licensing can generate revenue that can be reinvested in research and education at Seattle Children’s.
- Industry Partnerships: Companies and investors are often interested in continuing scientific relationships with inventors through sponsored research agreements, collaboration agreements or other partnerships and/or in establishing new engagements with Seattle Children’s.
- Mission Impact: Your innovations fuel Seattle Children’s mission to provide hope, care and cures to help every child live the healthiest and most fulfilling life possible.
Industry Leaders
We invite industry partners and investors to collaborate with Seattle Children’s world-class researchers and clinicians to accelerate the translation of groundbreaking science into clinical solutions.
Disclosure FAQs for Researchers, Clinicians and Inventors
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Why should I commercialize my discovery?
Commercialization is the process of moving your discoveries to the marketplace.
This is one of the most efficient way to ensure that your research will have impact and improve lives of patients and their families. It also provides funding for the inventor and for Seattle Children’s, allowing for further research discoveries.
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Why do I need to submit an invention disclosure?
Submitting an invention disclosure is the official way to notify the Office of Innovation and New Ventures about new technologies developed at Seattle Children’s. It is the first step of the commercialization process.
We recommend that you disclose early and often, even if you are unsure if your invention is novel.
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When do I submit an invention disclosure?
As early as possible.
An invention disclosure should be submitted before publicly presenting or publishing an invention. Public disclosures include manuscripts, abstracts sent to conferences, posters, oral presentations and non-Seattle Children’s seminars and talks.
To secure appropriate intellectual property protection, we recommend that inventors disclose discoveries early and often so that the Office of Innovation and New Ventures can take action to protect rights to any inventions and evaluate their commercial value.
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How do I submit an invention disclosure?
Download an intellectual property disclosure form and email the Office of Innovation and New Ventures.
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What happens after I submit an invention disclosure?
- The Office of Innovation and New Ventures will review.
- If critical information is missing, we’ll will notify you via email to update the form and resubmit.
- Once the disclosure form is verified as complete, you will receive a DocuSign link to sign the invention disclosure.
- Each contributor listed on the disclosure will receive an inventor assignment agreement for signature.
- After the Office of Innovation and New Ventures receives signed inventor assignment agreements, the disclosure will be assigned to a case manager.
- The case manager will evaluate the commercial potential of the technology and develop a commercialization plan that will be detailed in an invention disclosure assessment (IDA) document.
- It can take up to 90 days to prepare an IDA. The case manager will contact you about discussing the IDA and follow up with next steps, which may include filing a patent application.
- The Office of Innovation and New Ventures will review.
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Is the goal of submitting an invention disclosure to be an inventor on a patent?
No, not every invention meets patentability requirements, and not every invention has commercial potential. Obtaining a patent excludes others from using, making, or selling an invention, but the invention must have commercial potential in order to be valuable.
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Once a patent application is filed, what happens next?
Filing a patent application initially secures potential patent rights to an invention, but the goal is to find a commercial partner to make, sell, use and/or further develop the invention.
The Office of Innovation and New Ventures will look for commercial partners for further development and licensing of those patent rights.
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Should I start a company around my technology or should my technology be licensed to an existing company?
The answer to this question depends on a number of factors.
These include:
- the type of technology.
- the existing landscape for the area of commercial opportunities.
- the interest received from commercial/industry partners.
Some technologies are better suited to out-licensing to an existing company that may have an existing program that could benefit from the technology. Other technologies might be suitable for a startup company, for example, in the case of a platform technology.