Ramot is a wholly owned subsidiary of TAU, and is the commercial arm of the university. Ramot's chief objective is to facilitate the transfer of new technologies from the laboratory to the marketplace and to strengthen the relationship between TAU's research community and the business community.

Ramot assists faculty, staff, and students in matters relating to the protection and marketing of TAU's technologies. Primary functions include: assisting researchers in disseminating new and useful knowledge for public benefit; promoting transfer of technology to industry through licensing and other commercial agreements; distributing royalty and other income to inventors; assisting in establishing start-up companies; and protecting the inventors' and TAU's rights in inventions and discoveries.

Ramot's team includes: technology licensing officers; patent manager; full time attorney; office manager; patent administration; and support staff

Each officer manages individual cases from beginning to end, including evaluation of the invention, management of literature searches, market assessment, coordinating decision-making process with respect to patent filing, marketing of the technology to potential licensees, negotiation of license agreements, and monitoring and enforcement of licensee performance.

Our business development unit is located on the TAU campus in the basement of the Senate Building. The phone number is 03-640-6608. More information can be found in the contact us section.

Disclosing your invention to Ramot is an important part of protecting the rights to your invention. One of the most important benefits may be the commercialization of your technology through Ramot's efforts in patenting and licensing the invention. Other benefits include new contacts with industry and industry sponsored research in your laboratory.

Ramot is responsible for developing and implementing a commercialization strategy for the invention. We research the relevant market and strive to identify and contact companies that may be interested in licensing the technology. We initiate and conduct interactions with these companies, work with inventors to provide presentations of the technology and negotiate the agreements. The inventor's involvement in this process is very important. The inventor often knows the companies in the relevant field and may have important contacts with researchers in these companies. In addition, the inventor's knowledge, contacts, sustained effort, and ongoing interactions with his/her scientific counterparts in the licensing company are generally instrumental in completing transactions. We, therefore, work very closely with the inventors in the commercialization process.

In general, the inventor(s) of the relevant invention is/are entitled to 40% of the net income received from the licensing of the invention, after deduction of out-of-pocket patent and other expenses incurred with respect to the protection of rights in, and the commercialization of, the invention. In cases where there is more than one inventor, this amount is allocated among the inventors in accordance with their relative contribution to the invention, as determined at the time of the filing of the patent application. There is no cap on inventors' royalties. For a more detailed explanation of the allocation of income from licensing see the Patent Regulations.

Intellectual Property (IP) encompasses the expression of ideas, information and knowledge. In the university context, IP arises from research projects, collaborations, consultancies and other activities.

A patentable invention or discovery is a useful, non obvious, and novel device, manufacturable article, machine, composition of matter (e.g. chemical, mixture, alloy), process (technological method), or new use of or improvement to an existing invention. Even living organisms or other natural matter that is modified or isolated may qualify. Intangible ideas or objectives are not patentable.

The inventor is the person or persons who conceived of the invention. The claims in the patent application define the invention from a legal viewpoint, and therefore, are used to determine inventorship. A person who contributed an original concept included in the invention as it is claimed in the patent application is considered an inventor.
A person who contributed only labor and/or the supervision of routine techniques, but who did not contribute to the idea - the concept of one of the embodiments of the claimed invention - is not considered an inventor. For example, a person who makes a routine translation of someone else's idea into physical reality does not make that person an inventor.
Do not confuse inventorship with authorship on a scientific publication. Authorship and inventorship have different criteria and are not equivalent.

University researchers often rely on a number of different sources to fund their research. The contractual arrangements with these different sources differ and may address IP related issues. Ramot is responsible for ensuring that the issue of IP ownership under these arrangements is resolved before commercialization of IP developed within the university takes place.

To protect the patentability rights to your invention, it is important that you contact Ramot as early as possible prior to public disclosure. Public disclosure includes, among others, journal articles, publications on the web, conference abstracts, oral presentations and poster presentations. In most countries, if you publish your invention prior to the filing of a patent application, all rights to patent are lost immediately upon public disclosure. In the U.S., you have one year from the date of the public disclosure to file a patent application.

Twenty years from the date of filing of a patent application.

• Intellectual Property and patent information
• European Patent Office
• United States Patent and Trademark Office
• Israel Patent Office
• Patent searches:
• Espacenet
• Delphion (US patents only)

TAU owns all inventions and discoveries made by employees and students of TAU as a consequence of their relationship with the university and all inventions and discoveries made by other visiting researchers who use university resources. Please see the Patent Regulations for more detailed information.

TAU will not claim ownership of inventions made by you prior to your relationship with TAU. However, any developments or improvements of such inventions that are made while at TAU must be disclosed to Ramot.

If Ramot is interested in the invention, then all legal expenses and fees for the preparation, prosecution and maintenance of patent filings are paid by Ramot. However, Ramot tries to recover such costs from licensees.

You may either download the form from our website, or if you would like a hard copy, contact us by phone at 03-6406608 or e-mail: ramot@ramot.org. Please complete the invention disclosure form, providing detailed information, and send the signed form back to Ramot.

The invention disclosed to Ramot is reviewed by Ramot's professional staff to determine its patentability and commercial potential. The appropriate Ramot staff will consult with the inventor(s). A decision will be made whether or not to file a patent application to protect the invention. If a publication is imminent, the process of reviewing, drafting and filing a patent application will be accelerated in order to preserve patent rights.

Ramot may assign its rights to the invention back to the inventors in return for 20% of the consideration received by the inventors from the commercialization of the invention. This process is explained in the Patent Regulations.

Ramot's professional staff members, in consultation with the inventor(s), decide whether to file patent applications. Such decision is based on the scope of the invention, its patentability, and commercial merit.

Ramot's staff works with independent patent attorneys to prepare and prosecute paten applications. These attorneys are carefully selected based on their legal and technical expertise.

The entire process may take from two to six years.

A Confidential Disclosure Agreement (CDA) (sometimes called Non-Disclosure Agreement) is a legal document for the protection of proprietary information. Such a document is necessary before any transfer of proprietary information is made from one party to another. Without this CDA, the individual or company to whom the information is disclosed is free to use and transmit this information to others. It is important to contact Ramot before disclosing any confidential information to another party.

A Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) is a legal document for the protection of tangible research materials that are created by TAU researchers and are useful to others for research or for commercial development. It is important to contact Ramot prior to sending out any research materials.