University Guidelines for Intellectual Property

The management and administration of matters related to university contracts, policies, and guidelines which bear on the creation, ownership, storage, and use of intellectual properties should:

• • Foster the creation of the best possible quality new intellectual properties so as to further the academic mission of higher education.
  • Foster the dissemination of new knowledge and the maintenance of high academic standards.
  • Provide incentive for university faculty, staff, and students to fully participate in the use and creation of intellectual properties.
  • Recognize that newly created intellectual properties in a university setting come in a wide variety of old and new types and arise in a wide variety of specific contexts. Nonetheless, strong mutual interests are shared among the university, the faculty, the staff, and the students in the appropriate allocation of the ownership rights associated with such intellectual properties.
  • Support the concept that the ownership of intellectual property rights is not necessarily an “all-or-nothing” proposition. Rather, the set of rights that belongs to the owners of intellectual properties may be allocated so as to optimally support the mutual interests of the university, faculty, staff, and students.
  • Foster within the university community the continued collective and individual ability to access, acquire, and store information and works, to help scholars and students in the proper use and citation of the works of others, and to maintain coordination and contact with the world of publishers and other information providers.
  • Appropriately adapt university contracts, policies, and guidelines so as to address the challenges and opportunities presented as technologies and cultures continue to evolve and affect the practices of higher education.