Re: government grants and copyright

On Tue, 1 Apr 1997, boardman[_at_]inch.com (Cynthia Boardman) wrote:
>
> In the United States, if a non-profit educational organization receives
> a federal government grant for research, who owns the copyright of any
> publication produced from the research?

This is another "It depends" answer. Copyright ownership depends on whether the item is first produced under the grant or contract; whether the funding instrument is a grant, contract, cooperative agreement,etc., what type of funding i.e. ATP vs. basic research, what agency funded the research, what the funding was for, and of course what was ultimately negotiated in the contract. There is also a distinction between rights in technical data and software.

Generally speaking, if a federal agency sponsors work at an educational institution with a grant, the institution will own the copyright and the federal government receives an unlimted right to use, disclose, reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies to the public and perform publicly and display publicly in any manner and for any purpose. The federal government can also authorize others to so. If the funding vehicle was a contract and it was with any non-DoD agency the institution may only have ownership rights to use in scientific and technical articles unless it negotiated and obtained the correct federal acquisition clause that gives the educational institution ownership.

The Council on Governmental Relations at web.mit.edu/osp/www/cogr/cogr.html. has an extensive paper that can be downloaded that discusses ownership, rights in technical data, etc. for educational institutions.

Ann M. Hammersla
Director Sponsored Programs &

   Technology Transfer
Syracuse University
amhammer[_at_]summon.syr.edu Received on Wed Apr 02 1997 - 18:56:24 GMT