Commercialize

The USC Stevens Center for Innovation is a university-wide resource for USC innovators in the Office of the Provost. Designed to harness and advance the creative thinking and breakthrough research at USC for societal impact beyond traditional academic means, they focus on the licensing of technologies, expanding industry collaborations, and supporting start-ups. The USC Stevens Center offers support in the following areas:

The USC Stevens Legal Office Hours Program provides free legal assistance, counseling, and information materials to all USC innovators (faculty, staff, students and alumni) and USC-related, start-up companies. Their services are on-campus and provided by qualified outside corporate and intellectual property attorneys -- available by appointment only on (1) the second Wednesday of each month, from 1:45 PM - 4:45 PM (IP Law), and (2) the third Tuesday of every month, from 1:30 PM to 4:30 PM (Corporate Law). An intake form must be completed and submitted to legalofficehours@stevens.usc.edu prior to scheduling an appointment. Topics for legal counseling include:

  • patent searches and provisional/non-provisional patent applications
  • patent processing
  • patent protection
  • IP ownership
  • trademark and copyright applications
  • drafting articles of incorporation
  • drafting bylaws for Corporations (for profit and non-profit)
  • contract drafting and contract review
  • creating Limited Liability Companies and Corporations
  • reviewing business plans

The USC Intellectual Property & Technology Law Clinic, a clinical program run by faculty and student legal interns at USC's Gould School of Law School, provides free basic intellectual property legal assistance to those with limited resources for legal services -- including  filmmakers, artists, journalists, musicians, small businesses, non-profit organizations, innovators, and independent developers. The Clinic provides a range of IP-related services, including counseling on copyright and fair use legal issues; registering trademarks; drafting basic work-for-hire agreements, contribution agreements, license agreements, assignments and other contracts relating to IP ownership; and drafting IP policies, Privacy Policies and Terms of Use. (Note: the Clinic does not provide services in connection with patent applications).