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Innovating
for Life

Innovate with Medtronic

Message from Omar Ishrak

At Medtronic, collaboration is the key to innovation. Each year millions of patients and providers benefit from the improved clinical outcomes and greater industry efficiencies our products provide. Many of these are the result of collaboration with physicians, scientists, engineers and others passionate about advancing medical technology.

We invite you to share your medical technology product and service ideas with us. We have particular interest in the following areas:

 
Omar IshrakOmar Ishrak, Medtronic
Chairman and CEO
  • Improvements to current products that make procedures less invasive
  • Enhancements that can reduce procedure time or length of hospitalization
  • Products that have the potential to make older standard of care therapies obsolete
  • Products to treat currently untreated patient populations
  • Opportunities to pair Medtronic drug delivery technology with pharmacologic or biologic compounds

Please start here to learn more about the four categories below and share your proposal with us. Thank you for your interest in innovating with Medtronic.

Product Idea

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Product Idea

SUBMIT YOUR IDEA
TO MEDTRONIC

As a leader in medical device innovation, we are committed to bringing the best technologies forward to improve the lives of patients, and recognize open collaboration as a means to achieving that goal. In addition to extensive internal resources and competencies in research, development, engineering, and commercial excellence, we have also now joined forces with partners in Europe to co-launch MD Start, an independent entity, to complement our evaluation and development process by giving inventors an additional avenue to develop and accelerate innovative medical device concepts.

To submit your idea for consideration, please go through the following three-step process.

Step 1

Getting Started With Your Submission

PDFDownload this form to
your computer. PDF is for reference purposes only. Procedures

To get started with your idea submission, please read through the following steps.

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Idea Generation

Completely document your idea with sketches, illustrations, narratives, explainations, any analysis that precisely and accurately describes your idea, and how it is structured and works.

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Your Own Assessment

Assess the potential interest of Medtronic in your idea by answering the following questions.

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Your Own Assessment

Q1: Does it relate well to the types of products, services or therapies Medtronic offers, such as treatment of chronic disease? Visit www.medtronic.com to learn more about our current offerings to determine if your idea fits with our portfolio treatments.

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Your Own Assessment

Q2: Is it more than an idea? Patents usually can only be obtained for methods, process and/or structure which define the feature, not for the concept of the feature itself. Ask yourself if the idea has been reduced to a working prototype. If not, the idea should be sufficiently well-defined so a knowledgeable person can understand and describe what would be needed to make a prototype. If not, the idea may require additional development or experimentation.

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Your Own Assessment

Q3: Is your idea new? For example, a search of published patents, products, and literature (“prior art”) has not uncovered a similar idea, or a knowledgeable person believes your idea is new.

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Idea Submission

To ensure that both your rights and Medtronic’s terms and conditions of acceptance of your idea submission are clear, ideas will not be accepted unless submitted by the Medtronic Outside Submission Form and Agreement. Submitted ideas fall into two categories: Confidential and Non-Confidential. The Outside Submission Form and Agreement has check boxes to indicate whether your disclosure is confidential or non-confidential. Each idea should be submitted separately. (continued on next slide)

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Idea Submission

a) Confidential Disclosures. If you indicate that your disclosure is confidential, we will hold your information (as defined in the Outside Submission Form and Agreement) in confidence for one (1) year from the date of submittal. b) Non-confidential Disclosures. If you indicate the disclosure is non-confidential, we will make your disclosure more broadly available within Medtronic, increasing the potential audience for your idea. However, since we have no obligation to keep your idea confidential, we may freely use whatever information you disclose unless you separately obtain a patent. For this reason, you may want to limit the information you provide in a non-confidential disclosure.

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Medtronic Assessment

We strive to promptly and courteously respond to each idea submission. You should receive a decision regarding our interest in your idea within approximately three months after receipt. We use several internal procedures to review your idea, sometimes requiring substantial time. Should we be interested in your idea, we will contact you or your legal representative to discuss arrangements to obtain legal rights to the idea.

Step 2

PDFDownload this form to
your computer. PDF is for reference purposes only. Important Points

Please read carefully through the following important points before submitting your idea for consideration.

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1

An idea is defined as a new product or service (for example, structure, composition, or process) or an improvement to an existing product or service.

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2

Medtronic invests heavily in research and development to create and develop many ideas and new products. Thus, some ideas we receive may have been previously disclosed to us by others or developed by us, but may not yet have been included in a marketed product. We assume no obligation to inform you of any knowledge or discoveries it has about ideas that are the same or similar to your idea. Further, by receiving and evaluating your idea, Medtronic is not representing or in any way implying that your idea is new, useful, and/or non-obvious.

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3

Medtronic is under no obligation to use ideas submitted from outside the company. Generally, for us to use an idea there must be good business fit, novelty, and a potential for implementation in a marketable product, among other factors.

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4

Before you submit your idea to Medtronic, we suggest that you consult a patent attorney for professional advice. It should also be noted that even if we obtain access to your idea it may not end up being developed into a product. Many factors influence whether your idea will make its way to the marketplace, including the technical risks involved, the amount of investment capital required, the time to market, and a variety of market and business considerations.

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5

Medtronic will keep and retain all documents, samples, models, and/or any similar related material submitted by you and is under no obligation to return them. Keep a duplicate copy of everything you provide to us.

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You are free to submit your idea to other parties. We request that you not disclose that Medtronic is reviewing your idea. We further request that you maintain all communications with us confidential.

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7

Disclosure of an idea to any Medtronic employee outside the process and procedures outlined herein does not establish any obligation or legal liability by Medtronic.

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You must represent to Medtronic that, to the best of your knowledge, you are the person who originated the idea, that you are not under any duty to assign your idea to another, that you are the sole owner of the idea, that you have not assigned the idea to another, that there are no pending or anticipated claims against the idea, and that you have the full right to negotiate with Medtronic concerning your idea.

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9

Medtronic assumes no obligation to act in a consultative capacity regarding patentability, ownership, or commercial value or potential of your idea.

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10

If you are less than 18 years old, a parent or legal guardian must sign any agreements with Medtronic.

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11

This website does not address all terms and conditions and is subject to change at any time. Medtronic reserves the right to change, modify, or amend this website in whole or in part. Rely only on written, signed agreements with the company.

Step 3

Submit Your Idea

We recommend you view the Submission Example and use the Mock-Submission Form before clicking to the actual Submission Form.

Submission Example >

 Download this example of
a well-filled-out submission form.

'Blank' Submission Form >

 Download this form to
your computer. DOC is for reference purposes only.

Submit Here >

Request Funding

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Request Grant

LEARN ABOUT MEDTRONIC’S VARIOUS FUNDING PROGRAMS


Click here to go to Medtronic’s Donation Request Forms page where you can learn about and apply to the various grant options available to you.
Request Grant >

Click here to go to Medtronic’s External Research Program and learn more about how we support investigator-initiated research projects that advance medical and scientific knowledge.
Medtronic’s External Research Program >

 

Business Proposal

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Business Proposal

Coming Soon

Step 1

Getting Started With Your Submission

Review example of business proposal >

The format, structure and recommended components of your proposal should follow this example.

 

Step 2

 

Submit your proposal

Coming soon

Submit >

 

Your Feedback

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Feedback

Coming Soon

 


 

This idea does not fit Medtronic's Parameters at this time.
Your idea may be a fit for our 3rd party MDStart.

Go to MDStart