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Glossary (This section is provided for information only. It is not part of the policy, per se.)
Commercial venture - a start-up company, limited partnership, joint venture or any other entity that has obtained an option or a license to university technology.
Confidential Disclosure Agreement - An agreement or section of an agreement that prevents parties to the agreement from releasing knowledge or information without the other's permission.
Copyright - The intangible property right granted by statute for an original work fixed in a tangible means of expression. A copyright provides the owner with the following exclusive rights over a work: to reproduce, to prepare derivative works, to distribute, to perform publicly, and to display publicly. Copyright comes into existence immediately at the time the work is fixed in a tangible means of expression.
Copyrightable works - "Original works of authorship" that are fixed in a tangible form of expression. The fixation need not be directly perceptible so long as it may be communicated with the aid of a machine or device. Copyrightable works include the following categories: (1) literary works; (2) musical works, including any accompanying words; (3) dramatic works, including any accompanying music; (4) pantomimes and choreographic works; (5) pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works; (6) motion pictures and other audiovisual works; (7) sound recordings; and (8) architectural works.
Creator - Refers to an individual or group of individuals who make, conceive, reduce to practice, or otherwise make a substantive intellectual contribution to the creation of intellectual property. "Creator" follows the definition of "inventor" used in U.S. patent law and the definition of "author" used in the U.S. Copyright Act.
Disclose - Formally record the essence of a potentially patentable concept, the circumstances in which it was conceived, the persons participating in the invention, and the steps taken to reduce it to practice, if applicable, in accord with the requirements of U.S. patent law for establishing precedence
Equity or equity shares - Shares of common or preferred stock, warrants, options, convertible instruments, units of a limited partnership, or any other instruments conveying ownership interest in a commercial venture, or options or rights to purchase an ownership interest.
Intellectual property - The intangible value developed by human creativity that is protected by the legal mechanisms of patents, trademarks, copyrights, service marks, trade secrets, mask works, and plant variety protection certificates. Rights derived from legislation include ownership and disposition, including commercialization. Intellectual property encompasses inventions, discoveries, know-how, show-how, processes, unique materials, copyrightable works, original data and other creative or artistic works that have value. It also includes the physical embodiments of intellectual effort such as models, machines, devices, designs, apparatus, instrumentation, circuits, computer programs and visualizations, biological materials, chemicals, other compositions or matter, plants, and records of research.
Invention - any discovery which is or may be patentable or which may be commercially licensable.
License - A contract in which an intellectual property owner grants permission to exercise one or more of the rights that an owner holds.
Mask work - A series of related images representing a predetermined, three-dimensional pattern of metallic, insulating, or semiconducting layers of a semiconductor chip product.
Material Transfer Agreement - A contract covering transfer of physical possession and use of tangible research property into or out of the university.
Patent (U.S. only) - The intangible property right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention in the United States or importing the invention into the United States. In order to obtain patent protection, an invention must be useful, novel and unobvious.
Personnel - All faculty members and staff (including those on approved leaves with or without pay) and all paid students.
Plant variety protection certificate - Registration under the Plant Variety Act of 1970 that protects sexually propagated cultivars that are distinctive, uniform and true-breeding.
Royalty - Payment made to an owner of intellectual property for the privilege of practicing a right held by the owner of the intellectual property under applicable law
Tangible research property - Includes the physical embodiments of intellectual effort such as models, machines, devices, designs, apparatus, instrumentation, circuits, computer programs and visualizations, biological materials, chemicals, other compositions of matter, plants, and records of research. Tangible research property is distinct from intangible properties such as patents, trademarks, copyrights, service marks, trade secrets, mask works, and plant variety protection certificates. Individual items of tangible research property may be associated with one or more intangible properties.
Trade dress - Distinctive and unique packaging, color combinations, building designs,
product styles, and overall presentations identifying the source, product, producer, or distributor of goods and services where the appearance distinguishes the product or business from other similar products or businesses but is not distinctive or specific enough to be considered a trademark.
Trademarks and service marks - Distinctive words or graphic symbols identifying the source, product, producer, or distributor of goods and services.
