8. Intellectual Property
D.8.01 Definitions: [These definitions apply to subsections 8 and 9 below.]
"Copyrightable Work" is an original Work of authorship fixed in a tangible medium. Subject to copyright protection are literary Works expressed in words, numbers, and other symbols; musical Works including words; dramatic Works including music; pantomimes and choreographic Works; pictorial, graphic, and sculptural Works; sound recordings; audiovisual Works including multimedia projects; architectural Works; computer programs.
"Creator" or "Creators" means the originator(s) of Intellectual Property and includes artists, authors, designers, inventors, and other similar designations as defined in law and used in practice.
"System-Supported Work", is Intellectual Property that was or will be created, modified, developed or reproduced under one or more of the following circumstances:
a. By a System employee in the course and scope of employment.
b. Except for a "Scholarly Work'", a work will be considered created in the course and scope of employment if it is related to an employee's job responsibilities whether or not the employee was specifically requested to create the work. Job responsibilities include tasks or activities that are included in a position description. that are assigned by the supervisor, or that are commonly expected of all persons in the job category. Creation of the Work would normally occur during System time with System resources, but an employee's use of personal time or other facilities will not change its characterization as a System-supported work if it is related to the employee's job responsibilities.
c. By a System employee through efforts undertaken, in whole or in part, when the employee is on duty to conduct System business. This provision shall not apply to convert the ownership of a scholarly work to a System-supported work for faculty.
"Incidental Use'" of System resources means that the normal consumption of System-owned supplies or System-paid utilities as is consumed in the ordinary course of work or study by the routine authorized actions of similar types of employees or students. Examples of incidental use are use of electronic mail, remote connection through a System server, word processing or other computing resources provided to all System employees or students without restriction to quantity of use, library materials available to the public, use of System resources according to an approved course of instruction, and the use of System resources for which a separate course activity or laboratory fee has been paid by the Creator.
"LEO'" is Location Executive Officer and refers to the Presidents of each of the colleges and the Vice Chancellors located at the System Office.
"Patent'" is a legal right that permits the owner to exclude others from making, using, and selling an invention for a period of time. In return, the inventor must disclose the invention in such detail in the patent application that other people will be able to make and use it after the expiration of the period of exclusivity.
"Personal Work'" is Intellectual Property that is unrelated to the creator's responsibilities as an employee of the System and that was developed on the creator's personal time with no more than incidental use of System resources.
"Scholarly Work'" is Copyrightable Work resulting from independent academic effort by professional, researcher, faculty, or student authors, whether or not such work may have been created within the scope of employment with the System. Examples are lecture notes, teaching aids, scholarly articles, monographs, books, research bulletins, and manuscripts.
"Sponsored Project" is a project funded in whole or in part by means of a third-party grant, contract, or gift.
"Trademarks/Service Marks" are commercial symbols used to identify products, services, or their producers in the marketplace. Protection may be available for verbal symbols, designs, distinctive features of clothing, buildings, sounds or colors, "trade dress", packaging, nonfunctional aspects of configuration or design of a product. These marks distinguish the products or services they identify from the products or services of others.
"Trade secret" is any information, including a formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique, or process, that derives independent economic value, actual or potential, from not being generally known and not being readily ascertainable by proper means by other persons who can obtain economic value from its disclosure or use, and is the subject of reasonable efforts under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy.
D.8.02 Purpose:
This policy has been created in order to clarify the ownership of Works created by System employees, particularly when System resources are used in the creation of these Works.
Consistent with the System role as a publicly supported institution of higher education, the Board of Trustees of the System intends that this Intellectual Property policy enhance the System's educational mission and benefit the public it serves. The policy is intended to ensure that new discoveries and creations are protected in the best interests of the System, its researchers and authors, and System taxpayers.
D.8.03 General Policy:
lt is the policy of the System to encourage its employees, and particularly the faculty, to be creative and to develop and produce creative Works. As an encouragement to creativity, the System seeks to minimize its claims of ownership to these Works, while protecting the interests of the taxpayers' investment in System resources used by employees in the creation of such Works.
Thus, it is the policy of the System that employees who create scholarly or Personal Works own them, unless:
d. Expressly provided otherwise by the terms of this policy, or
e. Expressly provided otherwise by written agreement between the creator and the System.
D.8.04 Applicability:
This policy applies to all persons employed by the System, including full-time, part-time, and student employees. This policy also applies to students and other individuals who use System resources, including facilities, equipment owned or otherwise made available by the System, or who use the efforts of on-duty System employees. Intellectual Property created while a creator is associated with the System continues to be subject to the same rights and responsibilities after termination of such association, unless there is a written agreement to the contrary.