united-kingdom patents
Graduation Project Patent Protection
<p>I am currently doing my graduation project. I am an undergraduate student in a UK university, and invented a new diagnostic device for clinical use.
I finished my prototype and it's nearly the end of the project. However, I need to write a long report about it for graduation and I haven't yet filed for a patent. The deadline for the report is in two days.</p>

<p>What kind of declaration in the report could protect my rights for patent registration? I built the device entirely at my own expense. Also, there is a chance that the college will select my report and post it online, for the public to see.</p>

<p>In <em>North America</em>, almost all universities claim both the <em>copyright</em> and the <em>patent</em> rights to all inventions performed using <em>university resources</em>, even if you're not employed by the university.</p>

<p>That's why stuff like <a href="http://bxr.su/n/bin/csh/csh.c" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><code>src/bin/csh/csh.c</code> from NetBSD et al.</a> say "<em>Copyright (c) 1980, 1991, 1993 The Regents of the University of California.</em>", and not "<em>Bill Joy</em>", who's the actual author of <code>csh</code>.</p>

<p>About the only university in North America that lets you use whatever university resources are necessary, yet still own full copyright <em>and</em> patent rights for any such invention is <em>University of Waterloo</em>, which explicitly boasts such status for its renowned engineering programmes.</p>

<p>Some other universities let you own the copyright, but almost all still reserve patent rights to themselves (including those in England); and these policies are <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11625/can-a-university-claim-patent-rights-for-inventions-performed-on-my-own-time">claimed</a> to apply even to the undergraduate students who aren't getting any financial support for their work!  The <em>intellectual property rights</em> policies of western universities are almost always publicly available on their website, so, you should just search to take a look at yours.</p>

<p>As for whether anyone would be able to acquire a patent in the first place...  In the US, you have 1 year to register for a patent since first publication; elsewhere, once the work has been <em>publicly disclosed</em>, no patent can be obtained anymore.  Since you are usually obligated to disclose patentable inventions to your university, you should ensure your <em>supervisor</em> and <em>second marker</em> do not disclose your project prior to securing the patents.</p>
