Re: Univ. rights

>Are there any clear-cut guidelines regarding who owns the rights to
>artistic works, lectures, articles, etc. that a professor creates in
>the course of his work for a university?
>
>Does the University own the rights, or does the individual professor?
>
>I assume in a case where the university commissioned a work from a
>professor, that the work then becomes the property of the university
>and the professor gives up the rights to market that work on his own....
>
>but in a case where the work is created as part of his employment at the
>university without a specific contract for a specific work, the lines are
>not so clear???
>
>Any ideas on this subject? Are there any case studies or rulings on this
>subject..any sources for enlightenment?
>

There is a "teacher exception" to the general rule that works created in the scope of employment belong to the employer. See Hays v. Sony Corp., 847 F.2d 412 (7th Cir 1988); Weinstein v. Univ. of Illinois, 811 F.2d 1091 (7th Cir. 1987), Dreyfuss, 54 U. Chi. L. Rev. 590 (1987).

Mark Lemley
Assistant Professor
University of Texas School of Law
mlemley[_at_]mail.law.utexas.edu Received on Mon Feb 13 1995 - 21:30:43 GMT