Timeline for Is it appropriate for a professor to require students to sign a non-disclosure agreement before being taught?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Sep 12, 2019 at 18:43 | comment | added | Dan Romik | @Time4Tea the professor’s desire to keep his teaching methods secret, and whether that desire is based on a “valid reason” or not, are irrelevant issues. The professor is not an independent agent who can do whatever he wants in his classroom. He is an employee of the university and is required to teach the class and allow any registered student to attend, period. The discussion of patentability of teaching methods may be interesting but it is beside the point, and does not undermine or have much bearing on the other answers. | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 12:50 | comment | added | Time4Tea | @Nij if your claim is true (that teaching methods can be patented), it would probably undermine most of the answers to this question (because the Professor might actually have a valid reason to ask students to sign an NDA). In that case, perhaps you should consider writing your own answer and providing references to examples? | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 12:48 | comment | added | Time4Tea | @historystamp it might be possible, but again, in the absence of any evidence this is all quite theoretical. Ultimately, the only one that can determine whether a teaching method can be patented is the patent office. | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 3:56 | comment | added | historystamp | In the US, the patent office has started granting patents to processes in the financial world. Seems like this could be expanded to teacihng processes. | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 3:39 | comment | added | Nij | That's absolutely nonsense. Patents apply to anything that meet the requirements. The closest that you might call "only to commercial application" in the USA is the utility requirement, which doesn't involve commercialisability, and in the EU only industrial use, which teaching (the education industry) is. @Karl | |
| Sep 10, 2019 at 20:55 | comment | added | Karl | @Nij Doesnt work. Patents do not apply to academic work, neither in research or teaching, but only to commercial application. | |
| Sep 10, 2019 at 20:47 | comment | added | Time4Tea | @Nij ok. Still, if we put aside definitions, unless there are examples of teaching methods that have been granted patents, I would say the question of their patentability is somewhat speculative. | |
| Sep 10, 2019 at 19:48 | comment | added | Nij | A teaching method is not an "abstract idea or concept" - it's a real process that is used to achieve some real outcome. It may be underpinned by a lot of theory, and the application of specific theory in a certain way may be part of the process, and if this theory is well-known or obvious it will probably reduce support for the method's novelty. | |
| Sep 10, 2019 at 12:29 | comment | added | Time4Tea | @Nij ok, that's interesting. My understanding was that abstract ideas and concepts cannot be patented. Is there any precedent for a teaching method being granted a patent? | |
| Sep 10, 2019 at 3:44 | comment | added | Nij | If the teaching method was truly innovative and could be described in the manner a patent requires of e.g. an industrial manufacturing process, yes, it certainly could be patented. | |
| Sep 9, 2019 at 14:43 | history | answered | Time4Tea | CC BY-SA 4.0 |