Invention Disclosure System

Disclosure information is protected using UCSD’s VPN system. If access is attempted off-campus without VPN, the link to the Disclosure System will lead to a page showing an access error message. If you are trying to access the Disclosure System from an off campus location, please log into the VPN first using the ‘2-Step Secured - allthruucsd’ Group. See further instructions on VPN access at this link:

VPN instructions

Once you are connected to VPN, Go to: https://edisclosure.ucsd.edu. Enter your SSO Business Systems username and password to access the Invention Disclosure System.

 Your Home Page should look like this: 

Legend:

1. This area contains links to your account settings and profile, favorite records, and login/out functionality

2. This table provides information on previous disclosures you have created in Sophia.

          a. Track Code is the unique identifier for each disclosure record.

          NOTE: The submission Track Code IS NOT your UCSD Case Number. You will receive that at a later point in the process.

          b. Title contains the disclosure type.

          c. Submit Date is the date the disclosure was submitted (created in the case of disclosures that are In Process)

          d. Submission Status is the phase of the disclosure workflow in which each disclosure resides.

                    i. In Process: disclosure records has been created but not submitted.

                    ii. Under Review: disclosure has been submitted and is being reviewed by OIC staff.

                    iii. Returned: disclosure has been returned to inventor for additional changes.

                    iv. Accepted: disclosure is complete and has been accepted by OIC.

                    v. Declined: disclosure has been abandoned (this is used when an inventor no longer wishes to pursue)

                        Once a disclosure is accepted or declined, changes can no longer be made to the disclosure record.

3. Click on the pencil icon to edit your submission table parameters (Report title, Number of submissions that can be shown at once).

4. The Tasks table contains link to create disclosures of various types: Invention, Tangible Research Material (TRM) or Copyright. Click on one to begin the disclosure process.

5. This table contains information regarding ongoing Intellectual Property cases. Please see "Checking Status of Ongoing Cases" section below for details.

6. This link provides access to any custom reports included with your account. Click on the link to see the full list and access the report results.

To create a disclosure, click on one of the form options in the Tasks box to the right of the home page:

• Use the invention disclosure form to disclose information on machines, manufactured articles, industrial processes, chemical compositions, etc. 
• Use the copyright disclosure form to disclose information on original works of authorship, poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture.
• Use the tangible research material (TRM) to disclose specific materials produced as part of research projects sponsored by UC San Diego. 

If you have any questions about which form to use, please contact the Office of Innovation and Commercialization for help (see contact information at the bottom of this page).

The disclosure form looks like this:

1. Click here to return to your home page.

2. This area shows a list of the pages composing the disclosure form (this will vary depending on the type of disclosure), as well as current progress (pages with a checkmark have been filled out).

3. The “Survey Questions” area contains all information requests related to the disclosure. Please enter the information as completely and accurately as possible.

NOTICE: Answering some questions will cause new questions to automatically appear on the page. For example, if you answer yes to a question about having previously presented the idea publicly, the system will then ask you to provide a date and details for this presentation.

4. If a question is preceded by a red asterisk, an answer is required in order to progress to the next page.

5. When you have completed all information entry in a particular page, click the “Next” button to move on to the next page.

NOTICE: The information entered into a page will only save when you click on the “Next” button and successfully move on to the next page. If you abandon your submission in the middle of a page and come back to it later, you will lose any information you entered in that page (previous pages will retain all data).

6. If you try to move on to another page and you have forgotten to answer any required questions, the form will return to the page and the system will flag any questions that must be answered with this warning. Once you answer the required questions click “Next” again to move on to the next page.

7. Once you have moved past the first page, you will see a new “Previous” button at the bottom of the page. Use this to move back to previous pages, but keep in mind that this will erase any progress you made on a page unless you have previously saved it by clicking “Next.”

At this time, there is no mechanism for moving directly to a specific page; you must complete the pages in order and can only reach a specific page by using the “Next” and “Previous” buttons.

8. Whenever the system asks for a date, it will prompt you to manually select the date information; however, you can click on the calendar symbol shown here to enter a date from a graphic calendar like so:

9. Once you have reached the Inventor Signatures page, you will be prompted to accept UC San Diego’s policies. Please note that OIC staff will still need to send you a printable copy of your disclosure and collect wet ink signatures from all inventors.

After you finish filling out the disclosure form, you will be taken to the disclosure detail page:

10. You can now submit your disclosure to our office by clicking on the ”Submit” button.

11. You can also download a printable copy of the completed form for your records or to share with other inventors by clicking on the page icon here.

12. If you would like to check or modify your submission, click on the pencil icon here to re-enter the disclosure form.

13. Your disclosure now has a Track Code that you can use to find it in your home page list or communicate with our disclosure staff. This is NOT the docket/case number; it is a unique ID to identify your disclosure form in the Disclosure System. You will receive the case number for your disclosure once the information has been entered into our Intellectual Property case database.

14. This area near the bottom of the disclosure detail page shows any notes that have been added to your case. It is a way for staff to communicate with you about your disclosure as well as record progress and comment on the disclosure process.

15. The “Related Files” section is an area where you may upload additional documents related to the disclosure. You can do this at any time before submitting the disclosure, as well as when a disclosure has been returned to you by OIC staff for modification.

NOTE ON DATA VALIDATION: Unlike our previous system, the OIC Invention Disclosure System will not prompt you to select inventor or funding information from a previously curated dropdown list. Enter this information to the best of your ability and the system will validate it during the review process.

NOTE ON INVENTORS: The default disclosure form requires that you enter complete information for one UC San Diego inventor. Once you have entered that, it will ask you if there is a second inventor, and if so will provide an additional set of inventor information fields. It will continue to ask you about additional inventors until you have entered five UC San Diego inventors; if there are additional UC San Diego inventors related to your disclosure you will be provided a single text field to enter their information.

For non-UC San Diego inventors, the system will provide up to two sets of inventor fields, as well as a single text field for any additional entries.

The disclosure review workflow proceeds as follows:

A disclosure record is created and set to a status of “In Process.” It can now be accessed from the home page as seen in the “Inventor Home Page” section above, by clicking on the appropriate track code or disclosure title. This will take you back into the Disclosure Detail page.

Once a disclosure has been submitted, the status will change to “Under Review” and it will be reviewed for completeness by OIC staff. If any information is incomplete or incorrect, a staff member will contact you to clarify the submission. They will do this either directly via email/phone, or by setting the submission status to “Returned” and creating a system email that will detail the requested changes to the submission.

If one of your submissions is returned, please make all requested changes (see the “Create a Disclosure” section above for information on how to edit a submission), then click on the “Submit” button to re-submit it. The status will once again be changed to “Under Review.”

When a disclosure is deemed complete, an OIC staff member will send each named inventor a printable copy of the completed disclosure for wet ink signature, and will accept the disclosure. At this point the status will change to “Accepted” and you will no longer be able to make changes to the disclosure.

The staff member will then create a case in our patent prosecution database and assign a Licensing Officer to your case. You will receive a message containing your case number and your Licensing Officer will contact you regarding the submission.

Once a submission is accepted, you will not be able to continue tracking its progress using the OIC Invention Disclosure System. Your Licensing Officer will keep you appraised of any changes to prosecution status, as happened with the EDisclosure system. However, as we roll out future phases of this deployment we will make additional functionality available that will allow you to track the progress of your intellectual property claims via the system. Stay tuned!

NOTE: If an inventor wishes not to continue pursuing a specific disclosure prior to acceptance by OIC, OIC staff will change the status to "Declined." The disclosure record will be locked at this point, although it will remain in the system for reference purposes.

The inventor dashboard provides basic information on the status of your invention disclosures, as well as any patent applications that arise from them. You will be able to see information for any record in which you are named as either primary inventor, co-inventor, or disclosure preparer.

Once your disclosure has been accepted by OIC staff, the system will create an invention record based on the information you provided. This invention record can be modified (by staff) to include additional information about your intellectual property after your initial disclosure submission record has been completed and locked. All patent applications related to your disclosure will be sourced from the information contained in this invention record.

Invention disclosure record information is offered as a widget on your home page. However, because IP application data cannot be provided in a widget form at this time, you will have to access a custom report to see those records.

To view dashboard information, start at your home page after logging in:

Below the widget containing your disclosure submission records, you should see a second widget named “Inventor Homepage.” This provides a list of all your accepted invention disclosures, with the case number, invention title, disclosure date, status, and a list of all inventors associated with the case. SEE NUMBER 1 IN SCREENSHOT ABOVE.

Please note that, unlike the disclosure submissions, you will be able to see information for any invention record that you are named on as inventor or preparer (not just the ones you created). This means there may be a disconnect between the number of records in the Submission widget versus the new Homepage widget.

If you would like to view patent application information, click on the “Custom Reports” link at the bottom of the screen (SEE NUMBER 2 IN SCREENSHOT ABOVE). Clicking on the link will take you to the custom reports page:

At this time the application report is the only custom report provided though we may add more reports in the future. To view results, click on the “Inventor Patent Report” link:

Here you can choose whether you would like to see the report on screen or download it as an Excel file. Running the report shows the output on screen as follows (please note that formatting design and data columns may change at a future date):

Each line in the report corresponds to an Intellectual Property application on which you are named as an inventor. For each application, you can find out the official application number, application and disclosure status information, as well as a list of inventors (we may be able to offer additional information at a later time).

The first seven digits of an application record correspond to the unique case number for the corresponding invention disclosure record. Please note that the same invention disclosure may spawn multiple applications (one per desired jurisdiction).

If you need further information about a case, please contact your assigned case manager.

To return to your home page, you can Click on the "Home" Link in the top navigation bar.