It’s a given in the world of research universities that the school is at least a partial owner of new patents or products created by its faculty. But with students creating more and more “apps” for platforms like iOS and Android, and with those apps often being worth big money, policies on university ownership of student creations are getting more attention.
From the article:
Missouri relented in Brown’s case. It also wrote rules explicitly giving student inventors the legal right to their unique ideas developed under specific circumstances. If the invention came from a school contest, extracurricular club or individual initiative, the university keeps its hands off. If the student invention came about under a professor’s supervision, using school resources or grant money, then the university can assert an ownership right – just as it does for faculty researchers.
This is an important trend that needs to be watched – in your organization, are there policies governing what intellectual property rights belong to the company for work performed by employees? If one of your call center workers invents The Next Big Thing while taking a support call, what happens?
If you haven’t thought about this yet, it’s probably time. Writing policies as they are needed is never a good idea.