Intellectual Property

Section 5.J – Intellectual Property

Vance-Granville Community College encourages the development, writing, invention, or production of intellectual property designed to improve the productivity of the College or to enhance the teaching/learning environment.

A College employee or student owns all rights to copyrightable or patentable independent works created by that person without College support. Unless otherwise provided in a rights agreement, the College owns all rights to a copyrightable or patentable work created by the employee or student with College support. Intellectual and creative works that can be copyrighted or patented, such as literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, computer software, online courses, multimedia presentations, inventions, etc., are “intellectual property.”

The ownership of a copyright or patent resulting from the development of intellectual property and any rewards or recognition attributed to the copyright or patent will be determined according to the following conditions.

Ownership resides with the employee or student if all of the following criteria are met:

• The work is the result of individual initiative, not requested or required by the College
• The work is not the product of a specific contract or assignment made as a result of employment or enrollment with the College
• The work is not prepared within the scope of the employee’s job duties or course/program requirements.

Ownership resides with the College, if all of the above criteria are not met and/or if any one of the following criteria apply:

• The work is prepared within the scope of the employee’s job duties or course/program requirements.
• The work is the product of a specific contract or assignment made in the course of the employee’s employment or student’s enrollment with the College.
• The development of the work involved facilities, time, and/or other resources of the College including, but not limited to, released time, grant funds, College personnel, salary supplement, leave with pay, equipment, or other materials or financial assistance

(approved July 16, 2018)