Grants Office

Intellectual Property

Approved: Academic Deans: 4/22/96
Faculty Senate: 5/29/96

It is the objective of the University to provide an intellectual property policy that will encourage the development of inventions and other intellectual creations for the best interest of the public, the creator, and the research sponsor, if any, and that will permit the timely protection and disclosure of such intellectual property whether by development and commercialization after securing available protection for the creation, by publication, or both. The policy is further intended to protect the respective interests of all concerned by ensuring that the benefits of such property accrue to the public, to the inventor, to the University and to sponsors of specific research in varying degrees of protection, monetary return and recognition, as circumstances justify or require.

I. PURPOSE AND SCOPE:

A. Purpose: to outline the respective rights members of the faculty,staff and student body have in intellectual materials created while employed by or attending the University.

B. Nature of Rights Protected by Copyright: Copyright is a form of protection given by law to authors of intellectual works. Only authors or those to whom authors have assigned their rights may claim copyright. The owner of a copyright retains and controls the right to print and reprint copies of the work; to sell or distribute copies of the work; to transform or revise the work; and to perform or display the work to the public.

1. Literary works;
2. musical works including accompanying words;
3. dramatic works including accompanying music;
4. pantomimes and choreographic works;
5. pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works;
6. motion pictures and audiovisual works;
7. sound recordings; and
8. computer programs, software and documentation.

The requirement the law places on the copyrightability of any of the above works is that the work must be in a form that can be perceived directly or by means of a machine or other device. Both published and unpublished works are under statutory protection.

D. Limitations on Copyright Coverage: Copyright protection is not extended to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of how it is described, explained, illustrated or embodied.

E. Copyright Ownership: The University encourages the preparation and publication of copyrightable works that result from teaching, scholarly and artistic endeavors by members of the faculty, staff and student body by upholding ownership rights of authors in their writings and scholarship that result from usual teaching, research or artistic activities. Because of advancing technology, new forms of educational materials are being developed which required a substantially greater level of direct support from the University than does the writing of a "traditional" textbook and the like. The extraordinary use or purchase of equipment and production facilities, computers, and the expertise of a variety of individuals with special training may be required to augment the talents of an author. When the investment of time and money by the author and the University differs substantially from that involved in the creation of customary educational material, such material shall be designated as University-sponsored and the University may claim copyright.

II. PROCEDURES:

A. The author and department chairperson or administrative head of a department or unit which is considered the source of funding "University-sponsored" material is responsible for negotiating the contract required in IV.B., 1 and 2.

B. The responsibility of coordinating matters involving copyright, including the making of contracts and the waiving or assigning rights, is assigned to the University attorney in consultation with interested individuals and departments/units.

C. The responsibility for the commercial marketing of most University-owned copyrighted materials, e.g., printed and media materials, and for maintaining appropriate fiscal records is assigned to Instructional Media Services. In some cases, e.g., computer-assisted and software programs, responsibility for licensing and marketing is better served by being developed through the University Research Foundation.

D. All University-owned copyrights shall be protected by notice of copyright in the name, "Southern Utah University," and may be registered as such.

III. DEFINITIONS:

B Copyright Owner: The term "owner" refers to the party who owns or controls the rights to copyrightable material and who has the right to sell, assign, distribute, or license the use of such material.

C. Publication: Publication occurs when by consent of the copyright owner the original or tangible copies of a work are sold, leased, loaned, given away, or otherwise made available to the general public.

1. Minimal technical help applies to editorial advice or to material based on essentially individual research, but supported by the University in the form of customary facilities, materials, limited part-time student assistance, sabbatical leaves, the use of time of a technician employed to provide such service during normal working hours, and some types of University faculty grants.

2. Substantial or extraordinary support. Additional support beyond minimal technical help as negotiated in the contract.

IV. OWNERSHIP: