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On Being a Scientist A Guide to Responsible Conduct in Research: Third Edition (2009) / Chapter Skim
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Intellectual Property
Pages 39-42

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From page 39...
... A patent owner can protect his or her intellectual property rights by excluding others from making, using, or selling an invention so long as the patent owner provides a full description of how the invention is made, is used, and functions. Researchers doing patentable work may have special obligations to the sponsors of that work, such as having laboratory notebooks witnessed and disclosing an invention promptly to the patent official of the organization sponsoring the research.
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From page 40...
... These policies may specify how research data are collected and stored, how and when results can be published, how intellectual property rights can be transferred, how patentable inventions should be disclosed, and how royalties from patents are allocated. Also, patent law differs from country to country, and researchers need to take these differences into account when they are working on projects in other countries or in collaboration with researchers in other countries.
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From page 41...
... Generally, institutions own the data generated by a researcher, but contracts between researchers and their institutions typically specify the details of the arrangement, and researchers generally are entitled to a copy of the data they have generated. Furthermore, new laws, regulations, and policies continue to influence intellectual property rights, with important implications for researchers.
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From page 42...
... At national meetings, he discovered that researchers in other labora tories had begun to download and use his program package, and friends told him that they knew of researchers who were using it in industry. When the issue arose in a faculty meeting, Shen's faculty adviser told him that he should talk with the university's technology transfer office about com mercializing it.
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Key Terms

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  • contributed substantially

  • research technicians
  • institutions own
  • organization sponsoring
  • established researchers
  • law differs

  • special obligations
  • policies continue
  • protect potentially
  • typically specify
  • copyright issues

  • idea public
  • trade secret
  • useful resource
  • property owner
  • scientific results

  • legal mechanisms
  • laboratory notebooks
  • public benefits
  • copyright protections
  • patent official

  • information easier
  • transfer offices
  • researchers doing
  • adviser told
  • commercially valuable


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