Fighting the Innovation Killer: What's in Your IP Policy?

Almost all colleges and universities have adopted technology-mediated teaching of some kind. How can we turn that flexibility into a permanent benefit for students? Too few of us have examined our institutions’ intellectual property policies for a who-owns-what conversation about the materials and tangible products of technology-mediated teaching. This interactive session is for higher-ed faculty members, IT professionals, and administrators in the United States and Canada. It will provide back-of-the-envelope, no-lawyer-needed principles to confirm or include in your institution’s IP policies. Ensure your instructors retain rights that will make them want to innovate, create, and communicate their good work—all while allowing institutions to scale tech-mediated programs, keep content current, and work collaboratively with faculty and staff creators. You will discover the basic principles to look for and establish beyond the usual IP policies at colleges and universities: what can and cannot be owned by anyone, why U.S. and Canadian laws are actually a poor foundation for policy craft, who owns what by default (and how to change that), and the three biggest gaps in most institutional IP policies (and how to remedy them). Disclaimer: This session is an overview of various models and methods regarding ownership of intellectual property. The facilitator is not a legal professional, and no part of this session is intended to constitute legal advice.