http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110124/ap_o...-post-form

The university takes two thirds and the IRS takes half of what's left. Nice. That's a real incentive for my kid to be a a creative and productive entrepreneur instead of becoming a unionized government cubicle dweller.

If the inventor is using facilities and materials not available to the public (like library access is) then I can see how the university has a claim. But, there is no understanding between students and the university about such things like there is with faculty whose jobs often include research and invention.

However, the student is paying for access to these materials and facilities. They are definitely not "for-hire" creations. If they are made for a GA position or something like that then its clearly a "for-hire" work. Unless there is a contract covering all creations, then things made "off the clock" and without university facilities is the creator's sole property.

Based on my understanding of copyright law, the universities might have a case, but I lean towards them losing.

This part of the article make sense to me...

Quote:But 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.

(01-25-2011 03:01 PM)GrayBeard Wrote:  This part of the article make sense to me...

Quote:But 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.

Yeah, pretty much. Except for the using school resources...that's sufficiently vague to cause problems. If I look up journal articles in the school science library, is that using their resources?