Why does the University of Minnesota have policies about copyright?

The University of Minnesota Board of Regents policy, Copyright, and the University policy on Copyright Ownership are intended to protect and promote the creation and sharing of intellectual assets and are critical to research and scholarly activities.

The federal law on copyright contains a general "default" rule that an employer owns all copyright to works created within an employees scope of employment. The University policy affirms the Unversity's recognition of and commitment to an important exception to this default rule. For scholarly and pedagogical works of facutly, the explicit central principle of this policy states:

The University shall maintain the strong academic tradition that vests copyright ownership of academic works in the faculty.

In this way, the copyright policies help fulfill the University's key missions as a public land grant instituition and help meet the expectations of the public, the State, the Federal Government, and research sponsors.

In this module, you will learn about the University policy and procedures regarding intellectual property by answering a series of questions.

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You will need approximately 15 minutes to complete this Module.

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