OSU Policy on Patents and Copyrights

Patents and Copyrights

The Office for Technology Licensing - Policy On Patents and Copyrights

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Summary of Major Provisions

ADMINISTRATIVE SCOPE--Covers all students, faculty and other employees, and all units of the University.

SUBJECT MATTER SCOPE--Covers all intellectual property matters, e. g., inventions, works of authorship, patents, copyrights, licenses, etc., relating to sponsored programs or other research activities.

INVENTIONS--Most inventions must be reported to the Director OTL. Inventions neither directly related to the inventor's University activities or responsibilities nor involving significant use of University facilities or resources will not be claimed by the University. Others may be either claimed for development through the University or released to the inventors.

WORKS OF AUTHORSHIP--Copyright in most books, papers, artistic works, etc., will belong to their individual authors (creators), but this does not extend to material contained in such works to which the University has independent rights (such as a computer program included as an appendix) nor to works produced as an integral part of a sponsored program or other specific responsibility.

COMPUTER SOFTWARE PREPARED BY A MEMBER OF THE INSTRUCTIONAL STAFF FOR INSTRUCTIONAL USE--The rights of University ownership of instructional software where the University has supported development of the software is dependent on prior written agreement between the author(s) and the university.

STUDENT INVENTIONS AND WORKS OF AUTHORSHIP--Exempt unless produced in capacity as employee, as part of a sponsored program or in certain other special circumstances.

COMPUTER SOFTWARE--Patenting, copyright protection, licensing and distribution of software is a complex and changing area; questions about this are best referred to the Director OTL.

ROYALTY SHARING--Except for on-the-job works of authorship (including computer software) of non-faculty employees, the inventors' or creators' share of royalties received by the University (including the Research Foundation) for their inventions, etc., is as follows: For gross royalties that are up to $75,000 the individual(s) receive one half of gross. Anything beyond $75,000 one third of {gross in excess of $75,000 minus any expenses in excess of $37,500}. For example: for $200,000 cumulative gross royalties, with $42,500 cumulative expenses, the cumulative share for all individuals would be: 1/2 x 75,000 + 1/3 x [(200,000 - 75,000) - (42,500 - 37,500)] = $77,500

An individual's share is not dependent upon continuing affiliation with the University.