Intellectual Property Policy

Ownership of Intellectual Property Rights 

Subpart A: Basic Ownership Rights of the Various Types of Creative Works: 

The ownership rights to a creation shall be determined generally by the provisions in Subpart A below, but ownership may be modified by an agreement, sponsorship agreement, or other condition described in Subpart B below. 

Definitions:

1. “College” means Carteret Community College.
2. “Consultant” means an individual or entity hired by the College to provide services or other work thereto.
3. “Encoded Works” are creations that are software and other technologies for the electronic capture, storage, retrieval, transformation, display, or transmission of information. 
4. “Faculty” means all permanent full-time, permanent part-time and adjunct faculty of the College, including, but not limited to any professional staff teaching during their regular employment hours or under an instructional or non-instructional contract.
5. “Faculty Member” means a member of the Faculty or professional staff, staff member or other employee of the College other than a student employee.
6. “Institutional Works” means course outlines, syllabi and reading schedules.
7. “Intellectual Property” means institutional works, scholarly works, encoded works, patents and patent applications (as defined under 35 U.S.C, et seq. and copyrights (as defined under 17 U.S.C. et seq. or common law, as the case may be).
8. “Scholarly Works” are creations that reflect research, creativity, and/or academic effort.  Scholarly works are those that are conceived and reduced to practice in part or in whole and include, for example: course instructional materials (such as textbooks and course materials), distance learning works, journal articles, inventions, research bulletins, lectures, monographs, plays, poems, literary works, works of art (whether pictorial, graphic, sculptural, or other artistic creation), computer software/programs, electronic works, sound recordings, musical compositions, or similar creations.
9. “Student Employee” means a student who is hired or works for the College and is required to carry out specific tasks.

General Ownership 

All right, title and interest to all intellectual property conceived, created and/or reduced to practice or copyrightable by a student to meet course requirements using College resources for which the student has paid tuition and fees to access courses/programs or using resources available to the public, is the property of the student.

All right, title and interest to all intellectual property conceived, created and/or reduced to practice or copyrightable (copyrightable works under this paragraph shall be considered “Works Made For Hire”) by at least one faculty member, consultant or student employee in carrying out his/her respective duties as a member of the faculty, a consultant or a student employee (whether the creation of such intellectual property occurred on College property or otherwise) shall belong to the College except as otherwise set forth below:

• To the extent a third party (other than a faculty member, consultant or student employee) is a co-creator of intellectual property, the College would share ownership with such third party/parties or the entity to which such third party/parties had an obligation to assign, if any.
• To the extent a faculty member or student employee created intellectual property outside of carrying out his/her duties as a member of the faculty or student employee, respectively, but used College resources in any way whatsoever (including, without limitation, offices, laboratories, the College grounds, equipment, computers, any College provided work material, institutional works and the like), such faculty member or student employee shall own the respective intellectual property (in concert with any third party at the sole discretion of the creator of such Intellectual property) but the College shall have a non-exclusive, royalty-free right to make, sell, have made, import or otherwise use such intellectual property in perpetuity and in the College’s own discretion.
• To the extent a faculty member or student created intellectual property outside of carrying out his/her duties as a member of the faculty or as a student employee, respectively, without the use of ANY College resources whatsoever (see above for examples), the College shall have no claim to such intellectual property.
• As otherwise established pursuant to an agreement as set forth in Subpart B below.

Subpart B: Modification of Basic Ownership Rights:  

The general provisions for ownership of intellectual property rights set forth in Subpart A shall be modified by the following provisions if any of these provisions is applicable to the situation.

Sponsorship Agreement:  The ownership of intellectual property rights in a work created under a sponsorship agreement shall be determined by the terms of the sponsorship agreement.  If the sponsorship agreement is silent on the issue of ownership of intellectual property rights, ownership will be deemed to be in the College.

1. Collaborations/Partnerships.  Carteret Community College may participate in projects with persons/organizations to meet identified student, citizen, community and industry needs.  Ownership rights pursuant to any collaboration or partnership shall be determined by a written agreement.  In the absence of a written agreement the College shall be deemed the owner of said project property. 
2. Equity Distributions.  In any instance in which the College executes an agreement with an individual, corporation or other entity for economic gain using intellectual property owned by the College, the written agreement shall control the distributive share of the proceeds between or among the parties to the agreement.  In the absence of such an agreement, the College shall be deemed the sole owner of all such intellectual property used for economic gain by any other individual, corporation, or other entity. 
3. Special Commissions.  Intellectual property rights to a work specially ordered or commissioned by the College from a faculty member, consultant or student employee, and identified by the College as a specially commissioned work at the time the work was commissioned, shall be a “Work Made For Hire” and belong to the College.  The College and faculty member, consultant or student employee shall enter into a written agreement for creation of the specially commissioned work. 
4. Contract Responsibility.  It shall be the responsibility of the prospective parties to any of the above set out agreements or contracts to negotiate the terms of said agreements within a reasonable time prior to the commencement of work on any of the above enumerated projects.  In the event that the faculty member or student  employee chooses to utilize the services of his or her own counsel either in drafting or reviewing said agreements or contracts then the accompanying legal fees shall be the sole responsibility of the person or entity seeking such legal counsel.  All legal fees incurred by the College shall be the sole responsibility of the College.  Attorneys representing the College shall not provide legal counsel or advice to any party except to the College and represent the interests of the College solely.
5. Failure to Negotiate a Contract or Agreement.  The failure of the parties to negotiate and enter into a contract as hereinabove set forth prior to the commencement of work on any of the above enumerated projects shall act as a waiver of the ownership rights of the creator in that portion of the work created prior to the signing of a contract or agreement unless otherwise stated in the written contract or agreement so that the College will be deemed to be the owner.
6. Written Request for Contract or Agreement.  Any party desiring to enter into a contract or agreement with the College as hereinabove set out shall make such request in writing outlining the project in sufficient detail so as to enable the College to make an informed decision as to the efficacy and desirability of entering into an agreement or contract for the ownership of the intellectual property anticipated to be created during the subject project.  This detail shall include, but is not limited to, a full description of the project, a full description as to the benefits of the project to the College, its students and the community at large, a detailed projected budget for the project and an estimate as to the time of completion and implementation of the project.  Said written notice must either be hand-delivered or sent certified mail return receipt requested to the Office of the President of Carteret Community College, 3505 Arendell Street, Morehead City, NC 28557.
7. Written Request for Contract or Agreement.  Any party desiring to enter into a contract or agreement with the College as hereinabove set out shall make such request in writing outlining the project in sufficient detail so as to enable the College to make an informed decision as to the efficacy and desirability of entering into an agreement or contract for the ownership of the intellectual property anticipated to be created during the subject project.  This detail shall include, but is not limited to, a full description of the project, a full description as to the benefits of the project to the College, its students and the community at large, a detailed projected budget for the project and an estimate as to the time of completion and implementation of the project.  Said written notice must either be hand-delivered or sent certified mail return receipt requested to the Office of the President of Carteret Community College, 3505 Arendell Street, Morehead City, NC 28557.