Intellectual Property Ownership Policy Overview
In keeping with sound academic practices for the purpose of fostering a shared understanding of intellectual property ownership rights, and to meet the requirements of accreditation of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), this policy has been developed to describe the Intellectual Property rights of Ringling College of Art and Design and its faculty, staff, students, and independent contractors. Critical to this policy are Ringling College’s core values, especially its commitment to free and open expression and exchange of ideas and creative work. Although this policy tries to clarify the ownership of intellectual property, frequently questions will arise that do not have clear, black and white answers. In keeping with the culture at Ringling College, this policy is to be administered in a fair and equitable manner for all parties concerned. The Intellectual Property Ownership Policy is about ownership of copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, patents and other intellectual assets created by Ringling College employees, students, and independent contractors, all referred to for convenience as “creators.” Basically, the Ringling College policy continues to be that:
Faculty and students normally own the intellectual property rights in what they create in conjunction with the work and activities of the College. Faculty own all scholarly and pedagogical works they create, such as class notes, presentations, handouts, personal slides, class exercises, demos, lectures, lesson plans, textbooks and conference papers.
In turn, the College normally has the right to use these creations for specific purposes such as accreditation, instruction, marketing and admissions without additional royalties or payment.
The College owns the intellectual property rights in the documents and media which articulate the program of study, such as the curriculum, course descriptions and course requirements in the Catalog, new course proposals, and plans for new majors and minors adopted by the College.
The College normally owns the intellectual property in the work created by College staff in conjunction with the work and activities of the College.
Ownership of the intellectual property of the work of independent contractors for the College is determined by written agreements at the time the work is contracted.
Creators get credit and attribution for their work and the College can also claim that the work was done at the College.
Exceptions to creators owning the intellectual property rights in the work they create normally includes work for extra consideration--pay or release time, for example. Another exception is work done as an independent contractor or, for faculty, as part of governance, institutional service or administrative service, whether there is extra consideration or not. Students, faculty and staff should also be aware that the College’s educational software licenses carry limitations and restrictions on the purposes of the works created with them.
The complete policy is posted to the Ringling website https://www.ringling.edu/policies-and-procedures/