Intellectual Property

Intellectual property includes literary or artistic works, inventions, business methods, industrial processes, logos, and product designs. Nearly every activity engaged in by students, staff, and faculty in colleges and universities involves the production or use of intellectual property. Among the activities involving intellectual property are research projects, books, journal articles, musical compositions, lesson plans, student assignments, speeches and lectures, videos, university Web sites, newspapers, reports, concerts, and plays. Most items used in education are legally protected intellectual property, often owned by someone other than the user. All members of university communities are permitted to use protected intellectual property, but they must engage in “fair use” or get advanced permission of the owners. Accordingly, faculty, staff, and students must be careful not to use intellectual property unlawfully, or they risk having to pay damages, fines, and court costs. Items that are in the public domain are, of course, free to use without cost to the users or consent of the owners. This entry examines the variety of legal issues associated with the topic of intellectual property.

Legal issues relating to intellectual property in education involve both the creation and use of intellectual works. Intellectual property law balances the rights of individuals to make, own, distribute, and profit from their creations with the rights of the public to make use of knowledge and inventions. Examples of the law of intellectual property in education include copyright and patent protection for the products of teaching and scholarship, copyright and patent infringement for improper use of protected works, and trademark licensing and protection of names, logos, symbols, and pictures used to identify colleges and universities. Readers are strongly encouraged to consult intellectual property policies enacted by individual colleges and universities for details on how particular institutions work with copyrights, patents, and trademarks.