Lab Notebooks

Lab notebooks are an integral part of a professional research program. They serve to record ideas, technical data, calculations, suggestions, and any information pertinent to establishing a continuing picture of progress, impediments, solutions, or failures that a researcher encounters.

A notebook provides an official record of an invention. In the U.S., a patent belongs to the first person to make the invention, not to the first person to file a patent application; but this right must be asserted with adequate documentation. Lab notebooks can help to identify individual researcher's contributions and to establish the dates and times of the entries.

For an example of a properly drafted notebook see Lab Notebook (pdf). Electronic notebooks do not currently meet the standards set by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) because they cannot effectively authenticate the occurrence of an entry or event in time.

For additional information regarding the notebook, please contact the Laboratory's Legal Counsel (LC/IP) at 7-3302.

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Guidelines for Maintaining a Notebook (pdf)

(pdf file of poster)