Faculty and Staff

OTTL’s mission is to empower Boston College inventors and authors by protecting their intellectual property, encouraging its wide dissemination, and engaging productively with industry and other partners to bring Boston College innovations to the broader public. We do this by educating researchers about intellectual property rights and nurturing collaborations which protect those rights and bring return back to Boston College.

In the case of potentially patentable technology, OTTL shoulders the burden of management and cost of patent prosecution while marketing that technology to potential commercial partners. The goal is always to maximize the productive impact of Boston College research, which sometimes brings revenue back to the University, its inventors, and their departments.

Faculty and staff are bound by the University Intellectual Property Policy, and their executed Intellectual Property Agreement, to disclose certain intellectual property to OTTL and transfer ownership of that intellectual property to Boston College. This obligation reflects promises that Boston College has made under its research contracts to make this intellectual property available for use and license. In exchange, OTTL extends its services to all faculty and staff to support the protection, transfer, and licensing of this intellectual property. Any member of the University community seeking to transfer or commercialize their intellectual property should contact OTTL for guidance.

Faculty seeking to increase their own impact through outside consulting arrangements should, in addition to disclosing such work to the Vice Provost for Faculties, talk with OTTL about the terms of any proposed consulting agreements to consider how such agreements impact their own intellectual property portfolios and obligations to the University. Boston College cannot negotiate consulting agreements on behalf of faculty members, but can offer insights into how to protect University and faculty intellectual property.