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Re: Faculty records and Intellectual Property



Amelia,
I don't think that issue has yet been fought out.  Historically course related
material was seen as being the intellectual property of the instructor.
However as higher education budgets have become or have been seen as
inadequate there has been a tendency to commodify this intellectual property
to the benefit of the institution.  That is, when potential profit was seen
(outside normal classroom use) institutions went after property rights.  I
think this began with the commercialization of telecourses and early distance
learning.  Institutions could sell canned courses over and over and widely.
This has become more evident with the advent of profitable software
development for course work.  Most people engaged in higher education
instruction have to basically sign away property rights (to a greater or
lesser degree) as a condition of employment.  This has usually revolved around
invention and patents and not course content.  With the growth in distance
education and potential for institutional profit the historical property right
of the instructor will be challenged.  I think there are some cases underway
now but I don't know that they have been resolved.  Course syllabi are not
kept by every higher education institution.  If they are kept it is as a favor
to former students who sometime later need to describe course content to a
third party.  There are no statutory requirements to manage this material that
I am aware off.  Trying to capture and maintain syllabi from thousands of
course over the life of an institution of higher education would probably be
an impossible task.
As to research it depends on who is paying.  With most federally funded
research (I believe) the research follows the PI.  So if the PI moves to
another institution the research dollars move also.  The intellectual property
belongs to three entities (or more): the investigator, the institution where
the research is being done, and the government (if federally funded).  The PI
will have an agreement with the institution on the distribution of profits if
a patent is issued and rights are sold or developed.  Theoretically the
government preserves march-in rights to take over the property and develop for
the benefit of the citizens (but this is seldom if ever done).  One could make
the case that the research results and documentation should go to NARA.  I
know that some federal research documentation has been sent to NARA from AZ
although NARA was reluctant to accept responsibility.  Usually it is up to the
sponsoring institution to store.  This may become more burdensome in the
future as new requirements are being devised to improve public access to this
material and some granting agencies may require online access to research
results for up to seven years.  If there is no patent involved the
intellectual property resides with the PI until it is shared with the world
through publication and joins the body of knowledge in the field.  If research
is state funded then there is probably once again an agreement between the
funding source, the PI and the institution as to who owns what.  Research
undertaken with industry support would be done under a contract that spells
out those issues.  Don't know if this helps and is only my understanding and
not a legal opinion.  Dick King, University of Arizona

"Winstead, Amelia" wrote:

> In drafting an standard policy for the storage and access of university
> records, questions have arisen over the intellectual property rights of
> faculty over such materials as research data and course syllabi. How are
> other institutions drawing the line between university records and faculty
> papers? In particular, how is the issue of intellectual property rights
> being handled in university policy?
>
> Amelia Winstead
> Georgia Dept. of Archives and History
>
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