About Innovations

1. I've had an idea - what do I do now?
   Either talk to your innovation contact (e.g. R&D Manager) as soon as possible to have your idea assessed or you can fill in our one page innovation disclosure form and send it in to our office. We'll treat the information you disclose to us as confidential, and get in touch with you as soon as possible to progress things.

2. Why is confidentiality important?
   Its very important if you have a good idea to seek advice from either your innovation contact or contact us before disclosing your idea to a company, or putting your innovation on public display (e.g. using your device on patients). This is because public disclosure of your innovation prior to seeking protection of the IP can prevent your idea from being protected (e.g. through filing of a patent application).
   
   If you need to talk to a company, make sure you sign a confidentiality agreement (also called a non-disclosure agreement or NDA for short) to protect your ideas until the intellectual property position has been established.

3. How long will it take to have my innovation assessed?
   Once we have all the relevant information, we can work with a professional adviser (e.g. patent agent) to seek the appropriate intellectual property rights protection. This should take no more than a couple of weeks, and once the IP has been assessed and protected you will then be free to make public your innovation (e.g. submitting papers for publication, using your device in a public area and so on).