Re: who owns student projects

Harold Federow <hfederow[_at_]u.washington.edu> wrote:
>
> On Thu, 4 Jun 1998, Bill Scanlon <wscanlon[_at_]execpc.com> wrote:
> >
> > Gerald Barnett <barnett[_at_]u.washington.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Tue, 2 Jun 1998, Kaye Caldwell <kcaldwell[_at_]softwareindustry.org> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > adopt and publicize their IP policies relating to students. (Many
> > > > universities claim IP rights to all student works as I recall - IEEE
> > > > is seeking revision of those types of policies.)
> > >
> > > In my experience very few educational institutions in the US claim
> > > a copyright interest in student work generally. Most claim usually
> > > only in connection with externally sponsored research or university
> > > commissioned work (student employee) in which such ownership is
> > > necessary.
> >
> > Dr. Barnett's comment is welcome, except to the extent it implies
> > that universities or external funding sources may claim copyright in
> > works of non-employee students working in "externally sponsored
> > research."
> >
> > On what possible STATUTORY basis could a university claim copyright
> > in the works of a student who is not an university employee or, in the
> > case of a student who is an university employee, works that the student
> > prepares outside the scope of the employment (e.g. for a class that has
> > nothing to do with the employment)? In fact there is no such basis.
> > Without a statutory basis for the claim, the claim would be
> > illegitimate.
>
> Actually in sponsored research situations, the university is abiding by
> the contract between it and the sponsoring institution which typically
> spells out ownership of all IP developed pursuant to the contract.

     Of course any such contract, to the extent it does not comply with the Copyright Act, is preempted by the Act.

     With regard to copyright ownership issues, the unwary, including students, faculty and others, at universities who are not familiar with the Act may be misled to their or their institutions' detriment by a sponsoring institution's contract language that they take for granted complies with the law but that in fact in overreaching contravenes it.  

William J. Scanlon, Ph.D.   

THE SCANLON LAW OFFICE Developing Science, Technology and the Creative Arts(SM) Intellectual Property Law
Internet Law   

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E-Mail: wscanlon[_at_]execpc.com Received on Sat Jun 06 1998 - 16:07:57 GMT