Technology Transfer

FOR UMSL RESEARCHERS: LAB NOTEBOOKS

An appropriately maintained laboratory notebook can often mean the difference between gaining recognition for a discovery or not.

U.S. Patent Law states that inventorship is determined by the first to invent, not the first to file. (Foreign patent offices determine inventorship by the first-to-file method.) Your lab notebook is the key piece of evidence in helping to make that determination.

The laboratory notebook should establish a permanent record which can be referred to while completing a disclosure report and provide an accurate documentation of the work done. When a researcher makes an invention, the date of conception and date of reduction to practice become very important. Generally, a sketch and a brief written description are sufficient to establish conception. Reduction to practice can be established only by the actual construction and successful testing of a device incorporating the invention.

Issuance of identical patents initiates an interference proceeding to determine which party was the first to invent. Each party has an opportunity to submit documentary proof of his/her dates of conception and reduction to practice. A laboratory notebook will be the crucial piece of evidence in this procedure.

MAINTAINING YOUR LAB NOTEBOOK
Another investigator should be able to replicate the invention by looking over your entries. The notebook should allow one to determine the nature of the project, when it commenced, what ideas were considered during the project, the compounds made or circuits and equipment actually built and tested, the results of the tests, the dates for each of the above and the final conclusions.

Notebook entries should be made in ink, using a permanently bound notebook with sequentially numbered pages.

Sign and date the inside front cover to indicate the first day of use. Entries should be signed and consecutively dated. An independent witness (i.e., someone who understands the technology but will not be named as a co-inventor) should regularly look over the entries and witness the same by signing and dating the notebook pages. Have your lab notebook witnessed daily if possible, but at least every two to four weeks.

Write legibly and identify entries with respect to the particular project for which the work was done. Use past tense to describe the experiments that were actually performed. Explain abbreviations and special terms that are not standard (in context, in a table of abbreviations, or in a glossary).

Provide detail. However, keep conclusions short and supported by the factual data. Avoid opinions or speculation.

Include all formulae or diagrams and sketches of circuits and equipment that were considered during the project, including the ones actually built and tested. Accompany each diagram and sketch with an explanatory note sufficient to identify and explain the subject matter.

Identify the project to which all data relate. If possible, indicate the project or experiment number, or at a minimum give a brief descriptive heading.

In general, avoid fragmentary diagrams or sketches, or diagrams or sketches without explanatory notes. Draw circuit diagrams, for instance, as comprehensively as possible, using blocks or similar notations to indicate conventional parts.

Avoid loose pages or inserts carrying sketches or other information. If a sketch or note is made on a loose piece of paper, and you wish to place it in your book without making another entry, permanently affix it in the notebook with tape and have its placement witnessed by another investigator. Make sure the taped-in information does not obscure any other information in the lab notebook. If the pages or inserts cannot be taped into the notebook, store them in a supplementary file (see next bullet point).

Keep supplementary files and papers (e.g., chromatography reports, biological assay data tables, etc.) in a supplemental file. Make sure every page in the supplemental file is tied directly to a primary lab notebook page and has an unambiguous reference name in the text of the lab notebook.

When two or more investigators are working on the same project, they should not split entries between two or more laboratory books. One book should be complete in itself. When two or more investigators are making entries in the same book, they should initial and date their own entries.

Make notations of the progress and completion of compounds, assemblies, or models being prepared for testing. Relate these entries to previous sketches or entries that explain how the compound or equipment is being made.

Successful testing of a compound or particular setup or piece of equipment is "reduction to practice" and the date of such accomplishment is important. Make notations of such tests, identifying the compound or equipment, and commenting on the results of the test. Give tabulated test data, if available. Avoid unnecessary derogatory remarks about tests.

Avoid erasures. If an error has been made, cross it out with a single line, initial and date the strikethrough. Then make a new entry.

Avoid modifications. Do not modify prior entries at a later date. If information was omitted, enter it under a new date and cross-reference to the previous entry.

Photographs are useful in keeping a complete laboratory notebook. Particularly where a model has been made and successfully tested, it is desirable to take one or more photographs which will serve as future identification. Permanently paste the photographs into the laboratory book, and give the date and identification, as well as the name of the photographer.

Never remove original pages from a laboratory notebook.

Keep laboratory notebooks in a safe place when not in use.

Index (e.g., by number, author, subject area) and save all completed notebooks in a central lab repository. Lab notebooks that relate to inventions on which patents have issued should be kept for the life of the patent plus six years.

SUMMARY

Use permanent ink
Use consecutive, sequentially numbered pages
Date entries
Identify subject matter
Include sketches, diagrams, etc.
Explain sketches, diagrams, etc.
Photos, drawings, etc. should be identified and attached
Avoid erasures
Avoid modifications
Permanently affix attachments to the notebook
Unambiguously tie supplemental file pages to a primary notebook page
Make new entries, do not alter existing entries
Have entries witnessed regularly
Provide proper storage
Index and save all lab notebooks