A seminar will be held Thursday about the protection of personal creations.

Students and faculty have innovative ideas and should protect them with federal patents, copyrights and trademarks, said Rebecca Parfitt, Technology Commercialization Center assistant director.

The seminar will be held from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. in room 305 of the Holmes Student Center.

“The university community’s interests have gone toward the protecting of personal inventions, ideas and sometimes even research, so there is no question who it belongs to,” Parfitt said.

The seminar also will show how to commercialize an idea or project, Parfitt said. “We help move ideas from the mind to the marketplace.”

Parfitt said an outside entrepreneur often hires students to invent a prototype or develop a marketing study.

NIU is one of Illinois’ 13 technology commercialization centers.