Questions tagged [intellectual-property]
Questions regarding the legal ownership of information and intellectual output.
5
votes
1answer
80 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
votes
2answers
152 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
votes
2answers
247 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 ...
119
votes
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
votes
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
votes
3answers
172 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
votes
3answers
963 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
votes
2answers
331 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
votes
1answer
149 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
votes
1answer
118 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 ...
10
votes
2answers
324 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
votes
2answers
241 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
votes
2answers
203 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
votes
0answers
21 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
votes
2answers
143 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
votes
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.
...
3
votes
3answers
136 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 ...
-4
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1answer
74 views
What is the difference between patents and research articles?
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
vote
0answers
35 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
vote
2answers
108 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
votes
1answer
195 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
votes
3answers
853 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
44 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
245 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
vote
1answer
105 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
votes
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
votes
1answer
179 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, ...
17
votes
1answer
493 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 ...
4
votes
2answers
184 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
votes
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
votes
5answers
344 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
410 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
votes
3answers
401 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
votes
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 ...
3
votes
3answers
411 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
votes
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
votes
1answer
446 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
votes
2answers
262 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
votes
1answer
340 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
149 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
votes
2answers
147 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
94 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 ...
2
votes
2answers
2k views
Who owns intellectual property from research funded by an external company at a university?
If a company or any external organization collaborates with a University to fund research - perhaps even open a lab - who owns the intellectual property (IP) of anything that results from that ...
69
votes
10answers
14k views
Is it appropriate for an undergrad student to ask a professor to sign a non-disclosure agreement?
Allow me to first give some context. A friend and I have been discussing a business idea involving a technical device that I need some guidance on how to perfect. My friend just told me he is taking ...
3
votes
2answers
772 views
Should I take credit from the idea that I have initially suggested?
I had an idea for a project and discussed it with my professor.
The professor said that it was a new idea and we could try it. We agreed that we would first research more about the feasibility of the ...
3
votes
3answers
347 views
Internship university asks to give up all intellectual property
I am a graduate student of university A, and I'm going to do an internship in a lab in university B.
I used an internship contract from my originating university A, which stipulates that university B ...
0
votes
1answer
374 views
Usage of a web application that I sold for an academic project: Copyright issues?
I am currently a master's student and really glad that I learned almost everything about plagiarism prior to my master's thesis, I really want it to be perfect.
Anyway, I have an issue that has been ...
6
votes
2answers
201 views
Are there intellectual property concerns if I submit “under review” papers as part of my application?
In my statement of purpose I talked about the papers that I worked on and two of those papers are currently under review.
Is it acceptable to submit such papers as part of my application? And are ...
8
votes
2answers
241 views
How much unfinished work and unexplored ideas should one share in a presentation?
Background: I am a fourth year math graduate student working in differential geometry in the US.
I'm currently preparing a presentation for a graduate seminar at my university, and today I met with ...
