Faculty need to be aware that the Office of Technology Licensing has determined that publication of a dissertation qualifies as a public disclosure per article 35 U.S.C. 102 of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (ie for purposes of patent filings).  This is true for both print and electronic dissertations, and is true even when the dissertation is embargoed so that access is limited to the Stanford community.  It is critical that faculty and doctoral candidates work together well in advance of the candidate’s dissertation filing to ensure that timing concerns regarding publication of data are resolved. 

Similarly, faculty and doctoral candidates need to coordinate to ensure publication of the dissertation does not conflict with other publication agreements related to material included in the dissertation.