What is an idea worth? How valuable is the right to perform a piece of music? These questions have both philosophical and legal implications, and point toward a critical policy issue in higher education - the ownership and handling of intellectual property.

At Stanford University, long-standing academic policies address questions about intellectual property, including the ownership and licensing of patentable inventions and copyrightable materials. The University's Office of Technology Licensing (OTL) is the operational arm of that policy, promoting the transfer of Stanford technology for society's use and benefit while generating unrestricted income to support research and education.

At the end of the page is a self-test. Use it to test your knowledge of applicable regulations, policies and practices related to intellectual property.

Any questions about the materials on this page, or about Stanford's policies and procedures related to intellectual property, may be directed to the Director, Office of Technology Licensing.

The following Stanford policies describe requirements related to intellectual property:

• Faculty Policy on Conflict of Commitment and Interest

  Establishes important quidelines for Stanford faculty related to the use of University resources, and disclosure/assignment of patentable inventions, among other issues. (Revised and approved by the Stanford Faculty Senate in April, 1994.)

• Inventions, Patents and Licensing

  Requires that potentially patentable inventions created at Stanford with more than incidental use of University resources be disclosed and assigned to Stanford, regardless of the source of funding which supported the work, and regardless of the inventor's association with Stanford University.

• Copyright Policy

  Establishes that all rights in copyright to pedagogical, scholarly, or artistic works, regardless of their form of expression, shall remain with the creator, except in specified cases where law or sponsored agreements require otherwise.

All faculty, staff, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and others who come to Stanford to do research indicate their agreement with these policies by signing a STANFORD PATENT AND COPYRIGHT AGREEMENT (Form SU-18). This agreement is required at the time of hire, enrollment or other research association with Stanford. Anyone who is either employed or enrolled at Stanford can sign their Patent and Copyright Agreement electronically in Axess. Faculty and staff will see the "SU Patent Agreement" link on the Employee Information tab; students and postdocs will see it on the Academics tab.

A variation of this agreement (the SU-18A) has been created for unpaid visitors to Stanford who have a prior, conflicting agreement with another employer related to intellectual property. Note that this agreement is filed electronically at http://otlportal.stanford.edu/su18a. (See also2005 memo from Arthur Bienenstock and a "Decision tree" to help determine which intellectual property agreement is appropriate in individual situations).

In addition, the following Stanford policies relate to subjects which bear on the general subject of technology transfer:

• Tangible Research Property

  Promotes the prompt and open exchange of tangible items produced in the course of Stanford research projects with scientific colleagues outside the investigator's immediate laboratory. Tangible Research Property (TRP) includes such items as: biological materials, engineering drawings, computer software, integrated circuit chips, computer databases, prototype devices, circuit diagrams, equipment and associated research data.

• Outside Consulting Activities by Members of the Academic Council
  
  
• Conflict of Commitment and Interest for Academic Staff
  
  
• University Investments in Start-Up Companies Involving Stanford Faculty
  
  
• Equity Acquisition in Technology Licensing Agreements
  
  
• Conflict of Interest for Staff
  
  

Stanford's Office of Technology Licensing provides resources related to intellectual property and technology transfer. Some of these include:

• the office's standard operating procedures
  
  
• detailed explanations of the patenting process
  
  
• Resources including an online Disclosure Form.
  
  

The Bayh-Dole Act allows Universities to retain title to inventions developed with federal funding, with the expectation that they will file patents on inventions which they own. The information provided here is from the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM).

There are threePRACTICE QUIZZES provided here:

• Patent and Copyright laws,
  
  
• Stanford University intellectual property policies, and
  
  
• analysis of situations in which patentable or copyrightable materials may, or may not, need to be disclosed to Stanford.
  
  

You do not need to identify yourself, and no record of any scores will be kept. Go ahead, mark wrong answers! Nobody knows, nobody cares! The quizzes actually function better as tutorials if you get a few questions wrong.

These quizzes will open in a separate browser window.