Intellectual Property

turiel

According to this application form which I have to sign for college, I'm giving up practically all of my intellectual property rights to them for anything I create. Do colleges normally force you to sign these things? Are there any ways around it?

Duffman

It seems incredibly evil but I've heard of similar conditions in other colleges....

DadaKopf

I think it's actually dual ownership. Which university are you referring to?

Could you post the clause here?

Capt'n Midnight

It probably says that it applies to anything done on thier premises or using thier equipment. So if you work at home you might be OK.

Then again most IT companies have similar clauses..

Lots of colleges have lost out in the past when people have used thier facilites and then jumped ship with the patents once the research is over. eg: genetic engineering.

deRanged

it's fairly standard. I know it's the case here (UCC).

turiel

I have no problem with a company enforcing such a policy, as long as its limited to work done using company hardware/time/knowledge.

But this is a goddamn college. Why the hell should they own MY THOUGHTS for the next few years. Bleh, anyway, here's the actual text:

....That the intellectual property in all work completed as part of my programme of study at Griffith COllege Dublin shall be vested in the College and no part of same may be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the college. The College shall be entitled to utilize the said intellectual property as it deems fit. In particular, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing statement, the College claims property of the following forms of intellectual property made, or created, by students in the course of or incidentally to their studies:

• Works generated by computer hardware or software owned or operated by the college
• Films, videos, multimedia works, typographical arrangements, and other works created with the aid of College facilities
• Patentable and non-patentable inventions
• Registered and unregistered designs, plant varieties and topographies
• All College commissioned works, including assignments
• Databases, computer software, courseware and related material but only if they may reasonably be considered to posses commercial potential
• Know-how and information associated with the above

Grrr....

DadaKopf

Hmm...

Might write a college article about this one.

Lump

I'm Doing media Prod. in Carlisle.... Cumbria Institute of the Arts. Anything I make using the college equipment is belonged to the college. However bit of a grey area. If you write a script then the idea is your, however if you make it on college equipment then the college owns that version. *** colleges normally dont give a balls about it. its there as a safety thing or something.




John

turiel

I realise that colleges may not "normally" enforce it, but I don't want them to have the right to. I'll fax it over to my solicitor tommorrow and see what he says about it.

Lump

To be honest they have every right.... if you use their equipment... essentially free of charge well then it is theirs.... end of story.




John

turiel

It's not free of charge. Its a fee paying college. But even if it were limited to things developed using their hardware, I wouldn't be getting so worked up about it. From my reading of it though, its NOT limited to that, and its basically anything you come up with during the duration of your course, regardless of WHERE you come up with it. You'll notice that it states "in the course of or INCIDENTALLY to their studies". "Incidentally" to me means anything in any way related to the subject I'm studying. And its not even limited to anything developed using their (or any) equipment - it's IDEAS too.

tribble

....That the intellectual property in all work completed as part of my programme of study at Griffith COllege Dublin

wouldn't worry about it - they'd have a hard time proving the words "intellectual" and "Griffith COllege" can simultaneously exist in the one sentence;)

signed :
a DIT (Do It Tomorrow) student:p

turiel

Hehehe :P

Ok, had a meeting with my solicitor and in short - apparently they're quite in their right to do it, its perfectly legal, and everyone else does it too. The example he gave me which often occcurs is if a student publishes a thesis or something, they have to ask permission from the college to do so and also the profits (not sure if its all or a %) go to the college.

I still don't think its right but hey there's nothing I can do, and I probably won't have to deal with it anyway, so I guess I'll just forget about it.

rob1891

What happens postgraduate-wise. I'm not going to pretend anything I do in my final year project (CS) will be groundbreaking, but I imagine some good things come out of PhD students every now and then.

Does this discourage many people from doing postgraduate research?

rob

DaithiSurfer

I think there was a case there last year in the us.
10 years ago this guy told someone he had an idea that would make him millions.
The company wanted to know the idea because it was theirs because he was working there when he had it.
He strung them along for 10 years , even after leaving the company. Eventually the company won in court. The ruling was that any idea he had while working for them they owned.

Now 10 years is a long time to think up something else like......
'Well your hounour, since you froce me to tell you. My idea was to use peoples snots when they have a cold as fuel to create electricity for the world.'

Rew

Originally posted by rob1891
What happens postgraduate-wise. I'm not going to pretend anything I do in my final year project (CS) will be groundbreaking, but I imagine some good things come out of PhD students every now and then.

Does this discourage many people from doing postgraduate research?

rob

Friends of mine are form a company around their final project and are going to make money out of it. There is now way the college could prove that any part of it was there though...

I did fairly gound breaking work for my final year proj (well ground breaking for a FYP ) but they would be hard pushed to prove they owned that as well, seeing as i did it on my hardware and never submitted any source code to them.... (all though now that i think about it they could probably take back my degree!!)

DadaKopf

I wrote numerous essays and projects for my Arts degree on my own computer, never using anything of UCD's other than their tables and chairs.

As a postgraduate, I'm going to be doing the same.

I don't like the idea of the university claiming rights to my intellectual property. However, I can understand how, in the case of postgraduate and doctoral research work (which is often where careers and reputations are made), the university in which the person was affiliated with should lay claim to a portion of the work.

I think this is especially the case for scientific research programmes in which millions of pounds may have been thrown into the programme - it's about universities protecting their investments.

I can understand how they'd want ownership of that - the temptation of jumping ship to a better paying multinational must be pretty strong.

But for undergraduate work... is it really necessary? Probably not, but then, who cares?

It still seems dodge, though: intellectual property remains with the author(s) and the college, it seems, but publishing rights lie with the college. What about academics who produce works entirely at home?

Lawnkiller

never submitted any source code to them....

Now that I think about it.... - guess I'm in the same boat...

Rew

Nah u left all that code lying around so i tar'd it up and its mine now!!!

How'd you like that for Intellectual Property!

Lawnkiller

What could you do with it anyway? Its freeware - nobody could make moneh of it, even if they wanted to....
(and I think its badly written ***.)