The disclosure statement

The Investigator (who is the primary inventor) for each invention should be sure to file a disclosure statement for any invention that comes about through work under VA support. The disclosure statement simply makes a matter of record of the ownership of the invention so that subsequent patent applications, if any, are not jeopardized. The disclosure statement also must be completed prior to any decision by the VA as to whether a patent application is appropriate.

The office of the General Counsel will decide on whether the government owns the patent rights, the employee owns the patent rights, or the employee owns the commercial rights, with the government retaining a paid-up license to make and use the invention. The disclosure statement will be held in confidence and in no way limits later actions by the RR & D Center having to do with licensing or transfer of the product to a commercial firm.

For specific instructions for making disclosures see Section 5 of this Guide. Note that formal disclosure statements are quite different from periodic reports of projects in which products may be mentioned as being under development.