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Questions tagged [intellectual-property]

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Questions regarding the legal ownership of information and intellectual output.

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2
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3answers
125 views

Ethics of patents for research work funded by tax money

My academic research supervisor is asking me to write a patent that he is self-funding, with potential private commercial interests and benefits. I am also directly involved in the work that is ...
142
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17answers
20k views

Is it appropriate for a professor to require students to sign a non-disclosure agreement before being taught?

There's a professor at my school that claims to be writing a book. He is requiring students to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) before certain lectures because he wants to maintain certain ideas ...
20
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7answers
5k views

Commercial company wants me to list all prior “inventions”, give up everything not listed [closed]

I'm a post-doctoral researcher in computer science, but my next position will be in industry. I've been negotiating a contract with this commercial company to do R&D work (not while I'm employed ...
3
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3answers
212 views

does conference presentation topic need approval from PI

I want to present a piece of work done with a former PI in a conference. If I go to this conference, I use my own funding. Do I need this PI's approval to allow me to present this work in that ...
20
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3answers
3k views

What can I do with a research project that is my university’s intellectual property?

I'm working on a final year project on software development. I intend to publish it as a research paper on computer science, but the university says that it will hold intellectual-property rights (IPR)...
0
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1answer
62 views

When data is required to be submitted, is it before publishing the paper or after paper is published?

Shall I submit all my data and models to my supervisor before publishing the paper or after the paper is published? I want to submit my data and models after paper has been published, atleast abstract ...
0
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0answers
55 views

Necessity of data submission of your thesis [duplicate]

Is it necessary to submit my data related to my thesis to supervisor? I don't want to submit my data as there is a high chance that it will be used to publish paper with other student name who is much ...
5
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1answer
95 views

Can I release my drawings with creative common licence before using them in non-open access journal or proceedings?

I spend quite a lot of time drawing images for my research projects, I really don't like that when the editor publish these images I lose the rights on them. So usually I release them on the web under ...
2
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2answers
165 views

Project guide asks for authorship without any contributions – how to proceed?

Our computer-science curriculum mandates that we produce a paper about a research project: We set the topic. We get a professor assigned as a project guide. The paper has to be published at a peer-...
9
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2answers
311 views

Should I copyright my notes?

I generate detailed notes throughout the school year to help out the students. Most of these notes are in the range of 30 - 50 pages. I wonder if I should attempt to copyright my notes to ensure ...
121
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17answers
34k views

Should I send professors money for illegally downloading their books? [closed]

I illegally download almost all the books I need for my studies. While I'm more than happy to give a middle finger to the publisher mafia, it does of course mean that the author of the book is not ...
33
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8answers
6k views

Private company using my dissertation [closed]

Context: I work for a small private company in the US energy sector. Recently, my colleague found an application opportunity for the tool I developed as my PhD dissertation. We tested it out with a ...
5
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3answers
182 views

Including cartoons in lecture notes?

I would like to include some cartoons in my lecture notes, just to spice up things a bit and relax the atmosphere before moving to serious stuff. However, I am not sure if there is any issue with ...
9
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3answers
995 views

Preparing lecture notes and references?

I am a new teacher/lecturer in science, and I am preparing lecture notes for my module. I am putting together a lot of material coming from textbooks as well as borrowing material from other lecture ...
4
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2answers
367 views

My supervisor published part of my research without informing me

While working on my PhD I have diverged from the area of expertise of my supervisor and other people in the group. In particular that allowed me to find a near solution to a problem that was not ...
4
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1answer
197 views

PhD intellectual property

The Australian government pays for the research study fees. Who will, in such case, have the intellectual property rights for the research: the PhD student or the university?
4
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1answer
120 views

Reproducible science: do entities exist requiring Level 3 of TOP standards?

Quite many (if not most of) scientific articles, related to computational sciences, which I have seen, do not share both data and code leading to the figures. This may have of course good reasons ...
12
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2answers
456 views

Advisor trying to patent an idea for himself even though we wrote the paper together!

My advisor is trying to patent an idea without me. I got to know that he is registering the patent through the IP officer at our University. When I asked him about it, he did not give me a straight ...
5
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2answers
245 views

(Soft question?) Sharing knowledge to students, what are the limits?

I am an undergraduate lecturer. I have been bothered by this question lately. I never and never want to claim that what I know, or even what I discover, is mine. Also, things that I discover, small ...
5
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2answers
221 views

Authorship when PhD project given to new post-doc?

I'm in the mid stages of my PhD, working on 3/4 of the components of a major project in our group. A post-doc has just started working on the remaining 1/4 using protocols I established (to keep our ...
2
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0answers
22 views

Looking for an example or draft of an IP-related agreement for industry employment

Researchers which start doing industrial work while continuing independent research are in a delicate position with respect to the part of their contract/employment agreement governing "intellectual ...
5
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2answers
151 views

Intellectual property of computer program of another authors equation?

When transfering a rather complex equation from another authors published article, to a computer programming language such as R, does the intellectual property of the script itself belong to the ...
39
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3answers
10k views

While in Phd I developed a lot of code that I want to turn into start-up. Can I do this?

I was working 3 years on a project, that I came up with on my own, worked on my own, published 2 papers on it. I want to drop out of Phd (or take leave) and do start up at this point using my code. ...
2
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3answers
146 views

What is the right way to patent an idea under PhD studies?

Let us assume that a phd student has discovered a brilliant idea during his/her phd studies and that the idea has not been published or presented yet. How can that student protect the idea under a ...
-3
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1answer
77 views

What is the difference between patents and research articles? [closed]

Both patents and research papers are the original works of the author which are never attempted by any other person in academic domain. So what distinguishes a patent from a research article ?
1
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0answers
36 views

Advice about the copyright in research work as a research associate [duplicate]

I need advice regarding the copyright of the work done as a research associate. I am working for a university as a research associate and my principal investigator insists on publishing my work ...
1
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2answers
110 views

What are the default copyrights/IP restrictions for a work I post online?

Suppose I've put a PDF with an paper or treatise I've written, but not yet properly published, somewhere online. This place is not some document repository or a site that has some specific copyright ...
3
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1answer
204 views

Can I work on open-source projects while being a part of an academic institution?

I'm working on a software framework with the goal of creating something that is open-source, so that the scientific community can use, understand and improve it freely. However, a little birdie told ...
7
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3answers
1k views

Using a case study without company's permission

In addition to academic work, I have done private work in industry that is directly related to the material I'm presenting. For one of my lessons, I would like to do a case study, where I take a ...
2
votes
0answers
49 views

Negotiating the intellectual property of a (US) industry contract

I'm finishing a post-doc and possibly going (back into) industry, but with the intent to continue research and publish papers and FOSS software. I know that hi-tech companies typically give you this ...
4
votes
2answers
291 views

Who holds the copyright if I did research at one university and write a thesis at another?

I worked for a research project on the migration of a prototype to a low-level consumable solution. I am also co-author of a paper that describes the math used for that project (my contribution was ...
1
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1answer
108 views

Ask opinion about situations in which researchers/non-researchers get involved in projects (externally) and the best way to avoid strange situations

I'm junior researcher so I'll appreciate your understanding on my very short 'experience' for the things I'm going to explain: I'd appreciate your comments regarding two relatively similar situations ...
4
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1answer
145 views

Do you need permission to use readability formulas in research?

I am considering using the Gunning Fog Index and the Flesch Reading Ease to calculate variable information for my dissertation. Do I need to obtain permission from someone to use these formulas? In ...
2
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1answer
189 views

Intellectual Property Rights When Moving University

I am considering moving institutions (from a one UK University to another), but I am concerned about what Intellectual Property (IP) rights my current institution may retain. Some of my PhD students, ...
18
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1answer
518 views

Intellectual theft by a colleague, how to respond?

A recent exciting but unpublished discovery of mine was scooped by a colleague. I am a PhD student and I shared the discovery with the colleague a year ago. The colleague is a professor who came from ...
3
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2answers
197 views

intellectual property during paid research

I was working on a project as a researcher. The whole project was financed by an external grant from a private foundation (nonprofit organization) and my salary was paid through this grant during my ...
14
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3answers
1k views

What to do about collaborators & co-authors who fail to understand authorship & plagiarism?

I've been working on a research paper in the field of education with co-authors for the past year. I know both of these individuals professionally for several years. One is a more seasoned author than ...
7
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5answers
347 views

Looking for specific examples of University spin-offs where the researchers can earn part of the benefits

I have demonstrated that some of the technologies derived from our research are marketable; I have offered services based on them to industry customers and have been paid for that. So as academic ...
1
vote
2answers
448 views

If a professor analyzed my work, does the university own my idea?

If I had completed work on a certain idea, and would like to have it analyzed from an expert in the field. And shared it with a few professors, to get their opinions on my work... would that mean the ...
8
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3answers
405 views

Does it matter where my academic website is hosted, for issues of intellectual property?

Say I am a British academic, who happens to have a blog, where I comment on my research and other people's research. Naturally, I do not want to infringe copyrights on any type, including intellectual ...
4
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2answers
177 views

Do I have to cite the source of my notes based off of a deceased professor's notes,

Let's say I'm writing a set of notes on a specialized topic, based off of notes from a deceased professor, who he himself had a disclaimer that his notes (theorems, proofs, ideas) were not properly ...
2
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3answers
450 views

Does a professor need a student's permission to cite the student's unpublished essay in their own work?

Would professors keep an undergrad student's essay to contribute to knowledge in a certain field? I mean keep for the purpose of citing and using it as a reference when conducting further research on ...
66
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11answers
24k views

Advisor professor asks for my dissertation research source code

I am a PhD student and I wrote a computer program for my dissertation research. Recently my advisor professor got a grant and she wants to use my computer program in her grant and she asks me for the ...
-1
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1answer
461 views

In Sweden, can a supervisor ask his PhD student to provide a private future work list of his thesis?

Recently, I faced a new academic phenomenon that a high level researcher informed me about. I am writing a potential reasoning of the phenomenon: From a legal point of view, PhD is similar to a ...
3
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2answers
288 views

Publish pre-research code on Github?

In preparation for future PhD work I came up with some ideas & protypes for software components that might later become scientifically relevant, both from a CS and application viewpoint. My ...
4
votes
1answer
116 views

Reviving a Rejected Proposal — Question on Ethical Considerations

A friend of mine wrote a research proposal a few years ago. When he had 80% of it done, he pitched the idea to a colleague who joined and wrote the extra 20%. The proposal got rejected. A few years ...
14
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1answer
363 views

Who “owns” a project idea after a grant application is rejected or declined?

This past year I put in an application to a federal agency (US) for a post-doctoral fellowship and collaborated on it with a three profs/research scientists on the proposal. If funded, one of them ...
4
votes
1answer
159 views

Publishing open-source code similar to unfinished master's work

My electrical engineering master's program was a disaster. My advisor gave me three different projects: The first one was interesting, challenging, and solvable, but initial peer review of the paper ...
2
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2answers
154 views

What are the legal ramifications of citing scientific articles for producing commercial software?

I am a sophomore student building some software with friends that are heavily based on various articles about distributed hash tables, networking, and various topological mathematical concepts. Since ...
1
vote
0answers
110 views

Is it legal to paraphrase questions taken form test prep books/service to a new audience in another country for a different exam? Do fair use apply?

Is it legal to paraphrase questions taken form test prep books/service to a new audience in another country for a different exam? Do fair use apply? About my business It is not the same exam Not ...

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