Students and intellectual property

Intellectual property, in contrast to physical property, means ideas, knowledge or information; as with equipment or buildings, it has value, is owned by someone and can be bought and sold. You may buy a book and therefore own one copy of someone's writings, but you don't then own the author's intellectual property.

Intellectual Property Right (IPR)

Intellectual Property Right law establishes who owns intellectual property and has the right to use it for any purpose, whether for commercial gain or otherwise. The whole field of IPR is governed by legislation. These paragraphs cannot summarise the situation fully but in outline:

the University can claim some IPR arising from your work as a student,
any claim is motivated by the wish to clarify ownership of IPR as far as possible from the outset, to protect both the University's interests and your own and not to disadvantage you;
there is parity of treatment between students and staff in relation to IPR (much of what is set out below also appears in academic staff contracts).

In certain circumstances, for example if you are sponsored by an employer, there may be another claim on IPR and Heads of Department may waive any claim by the University - however you should ensure that you obtain this waiver in writing and Heads of Department do have forms available for this purpose.

There are many types of IPR. Some exist automatically on creation of a work, such as copyright and design right, whereas in the case of patents and certain aspects of designs, action has to be taken to protect those rights by registration which can be both difficult and costly. Registered design is covered by quite complex laws. To be registered, a design must be original but not 'a method or principle of construction' or 'surface decoration'. It must also stand alone - you cannot claim design right on something which works with someone else's design or product. As with a patentable invention, the University claims IPR in relation to design right.

IPR created in the course of employment belongs to the employer and this is so in the case of all University staff. In the case of students, the legal position is less clear and, for the reasons given above, you will be required to sign an assignment of IPR to the University. The University is anxious to assure you that, by assigning IPR to the institution, you will not be disadvantaged. If anything you create is exploited by the University you will share significantly in any revenue in accordance with the scale established for members of staff.

Copyright in scholarly work, for example your dissertation or thesis, belongs to you. No-one else may publish, or claim to have authored, material which is yours. If you are involved in producing a multi-authored research paper, you should either be a co-author or expect to see your contribution fully acknowledged. Similarly, if you design something or create an artefact such as a painting or sculpture, no-one else may claim it is theirs. Some copyright material, for example software, which has commercial potential is claimed by the University even if produced in the course of scholarly activity.

The University does expect to receive appropriate acknowledgement if you publish a paper, your dissertation or thesis, or exhibit a painting or sculpture where any of these are produced directly through your enrolment as a student. The rationale behind this is that you as a student have had access to University facilities, including tuition or supervision from University staff. So the regulations in the Code of Conduct do say that you may not publish any material arising from your activity as a student without the prior approval the Dean of your Faculty or of your Head of Department/School.

Advice

If you want any advice on the protection or possibility of exploiting IPR you should email our Knowledge Exploitation & UoPEL team, part of the Research and Enterprise Directorate.

For further information see the university's Intellectual Property Policy.

Intellectual Property Policy.pdf