1. Does policy apply to students and post docs? JHU’s Intellectual Property Policy applies to faculty as well as students and post docs. If they are paid JHU employees, and as a result of the work for which they are paid, they invent something patentable, that falls with JHU policy. They would have a duty to assign title to JHU and would receive a share of any royalties received by JHU from a commercial license.
2. What copyright work belongs to students or post docs? - When the work was created within the scope of their JHU employment, it belongs to JHU.
- Work created by students outside of employment, such as dissertations or class projects, belongs to the student.
3. What other intellectual property issues impact publication of dissertations and thesis? A dissertation or thesis is the intellectual property of the student who wrote it.Every graduate student at JHU who completes a dissertation or master’s thesis is required to submit a copy to the Milton S. Eisenhower Library. The library will make dissertations and theses available to library patrons. A student may request his or her work to be withheld from publication for a period of time if they anticipate making a patent filing on an invention that is disclosed in their paper. Students may also restrict use of the library copies of their work processed by UMI. To be patentable, an invention must be “novel.” If the invention is described in a printed publication, it is no longer considered novel. Although U.S. patent law provides for one-year grace period on public disclosures, the entrepreneurial student will want to be aware of this consideration. “Guideline for the Preparation of Dissertations and Theses” has several articles related to copyright that may be of particular interest to students.
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