Re: Question about student ownership/copyright

On Tue, 27 Apr 1999, Michael J. Vinson <mvinson[_at_]u.arizona.edu> wrote:
>
> Yes, this is kind of a homework question, but we're not writing
> because of deadline concerns. Rather, we'd like to know what some of
> you think about the Arizona Regents Draft of their new Intellectual
> Property Policy. <http://vpr2.admin.arizona.edu/ott/ABORdraft.htm>
>
> When they address the ownership of student work, it reads like this:
>
> C. Intellectual Property Creation and Ownership
> 4. Employee-Initiated Works [?]
> e. student works (The student owns his/her own works, unless the
> student is a university employee and the work is part of his/her
> employment, or the student makes significant use of university resources,
> or the student's work is part of a Sponsor-supported project ...)
>
> As part of a class project, we're analyzing that language, especially
> "significant use of university resources." (Our project is at
> http://www.u.arizona.edu/ic/moore/414/ip.html.)
>
> We'd like to imagine some scenarios and possible problems with
> "significant use of university resources." Is this standard legal
> language? Can we make a case to the Regents for more accurate or
> definite terminology?
>
> Also, we'll be discussing this issue online, on OldPuebloMOO
> <http://128.196.59.21:7000/> this Thursday at 7:00 p.m., Mountain Time
> if you'd like to join us. If you've never used a MOO, login as "guest,"
> and type "@join michael." More instructions can be found at
> http://www.u.arizona.edu/~danika/moo/guide.html
>
> Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

The "significant use" clause dates from the earliest days of government-sponsored research contracts in which rights to the university research results were tied to use of the sponsoring agency's funds, equipment or other resources. The purpose of these provisions is to ensure that work produced with US funds (in cash or in kind) was made available for public use and not kept proprietary by the researchers. Many of these provisions were codified in the 1980's. See 35 USC 200 et seq. (Patent Rights in Inventions Made with Federal Assistance) at:

   http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/35/200.html

You might wish to compare the Arizona drafts with those of other universities. See, for example, MIT's policy at:

   http://web.mit.edu/tlo/www/TextOnly/guide.toc.html

Diane Cabell
Fausett, Gaeta & Lund
Boston, MA
<cabell[_at_]mama-tech.com> Received on Fri Apr 30 1999 - 15:04:41 GMT