[PaulHoule]

If it was not ‘medical device’ I would say (4) just graduate and file a patent and take your chances that the university never finds out. [1]

As it is a ‘medical device’ I would say the whole thing is a corrupt system of patronage that will make you device cost 5x more than it should and since your royalties will be inflated by said corruption you can afford to pay the trolls.

My main fear for you is that if you get the technology transfer office involved they might try to stop you from getting a patent because they might make a calculation that it is not worth their while even if it is worth your while. Don’t let them torpedo your getting a patent or let your resentment get in the way of getting the patent.

[1] Funny I worked on a search engine for patents and one of our customer persona was a TTO that wanted to catch any affiliates who filed a patent without telling them. I’m willing to bet many of them were too cheap to buy it, just as they are often too cheap to do the work to get a patent or that they make patents that would be cheap expensive and decide not to file them because of bloated process and gold plated IP lawyers.

[thrownaway98723]

I really appreciate the advise. I've considered this too. Am I opening myself up to being sued in the future by the university? I'm worried I'll put in years of effort and eventually the university will just claim they actually own everything.

[PaulHoule]

Around my Uni I have seen people get away with murder when it comes to just about every element of process around money and that if they have a problem then yeah you might have to settle out of court.

A VC told me this about disputes: if your business fails there is nothing to sue over, if it succeeds then you are rich and you can afford to pay…. Look at the movie The Social Network you might be rich and feel angry that you are paying money to people who seem like parasite but you are rich!

Seriously though the model of the TTO is to reject the vast majority of possible inventions, spend $20k on patents with a less than 10% chance of a payout on each one. It's a better business model for them to spend a fraction of that on a lawyer to write you a really scary letter and get a settlement for half of what they think you owe them. They might be happy to get a donation and you get something with your name on it.