Uni Work Ownership

sid

sid

sid

Soldato
Joined
9 Feb 2003
Posts
5,178
Location
London
Given this situation: you do a project for a univeristy thesis, graduate and leave. The project concept and idea was all thought of by your supervisor but you did a complete design & implementation. A year later you are contacted saying the university is taking out a US patent on the idea and implementation and in return they kindly offer your 5% share of total profits.

Do you argue for more or take the 5% and be happy you got offered anything at all? Does the owner of the idea deserve a significantly greater share than you (the univeristy gets a 50% share whatever)?

No idea what rights a student actually has over their work in this scenario? Maybe even none at all?
 
The student who had my supervisor before me did a project for Cat on a tow hitch.
Cat were SELLING the thing before he even finished the project.

The student got........

**drum roll**

.....absolutely **** all from Cat!
 
You need to check the terms and conditions of your University project! Some Universities retain ownership of anything submitted to them, in which case you're probably out of luck.

Worth negotiating though.
 
I thought generally all University's owned the work you submitted these days. Check your student hand book / uni hand book. If it says they don't then speak to a lawyer maybe... if they do then just take the 5% and keep quiet... :p :D
 
How much does a software patent cost to get? That gives some idea of what the worth is likely to be?
 
Its not that there is any choice about the agreement tbh. I haven't really heard of anyone complaining about these sorts of things.
 
Usually the university owns all work that you do, unless you are pretty lucky, check your student handbooks for the information on what you own, but you are probably lucky to be getting anything at all.

Same with working for companies, they technically own everything you do, even in your own time
 
Yes, although not 100% sure I thought the university is entitled to any work you do. Add in the fact that it is your supervisors IP (not the implementation, granted) I think I would accept the 5%.

Still, there is no harm in trying to negotiate a bit more...
 
sid said:
Given this situation: you do a project for a univeristy thesis, graduate and leave. The project concept and idea was all thought of by your supervisor but you did a complete design & implementation. A year later you are contacted saying the university is taking out a US patent on the idea and implementation and in return they kindly offer your 5% share of total profits.

Do you argue for more or take the 5% and be happy you got offered anything at all? Does the owner of the idea deserve a significantly greater share than you (the univeristy gets a 50% share whatever)?

No idea what rights a student actually has over their work in this scenario? Maybe even none at all?
Click to expand...

Check your contract, I did have to resign all the rights to all discoveries for the PhD thesis to the research group. They have made quite a lot of money out of it.

But if the idea and concept are not yours, why should you get anything? :confused::confused:
 
My Uni made it clear that they owned all projects but you could apply to take ownership of the project if you wanted to sell it on after you have finished, although I'd imagine if they are already in the process of selling it themselves and they are giving anything just be grateful as i guess technically they dont need to.
 
I would think that seeing it's your hard work and your idea it is your intellectual property and they shouldn't be able to patent it without your concent, the university should get what you have been offered and you get the uni's cut, if i found out the the program i wrote for my end of year assignment was being patented and they offered me 5% i would be annoyed to say the least seeing as it will have taken the best part of a year to produce.
 
Stu_Allcott said:
I would think that seeing it's your hard work and your idea it is your intellectual property and they shouldn't be able to patent it without your concent, the university should get what you have been offered and you get the uni's cut, if i found out the the program i wrote for my end of year assignment was being patented and they offered me 5% i would be annoyed to say the least seeing as it will have taken the best part of a year to produce.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, as already stated, Universities usually get you to sign over any IP you develop while studying there when you enrol. If you think your project is worth selling you can ask them, and usually they will just yield... unless it happens to be particularly valuable :p
 
The only form i signed when handing in work was to do with the date of submission and who took it, and just rooted out the handbook which says "intellectual rightes are heald with the student", must just depend on the uni and how much faith they have in the students coming up with work thats any good.
 
Stu_Allcott said:
The only form i signed when handing in work was to do with the date of submission and who took it, and just rooted out the handbook which says "intellectual rightes are heald with the student", must just depend on the uni and how much faith they have in the students coming up with work thats any good.
Click to expand...

Intellectual rights are given to those who came up with the idea and how to implement such an idea. If you develop and thought by yourself how to perform proof of concept studies, you may have something in the form of a claim.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom