Strategic Management of Intellectual Property Rights for OER in UK Higher Education

This paper is written in the context of the JISC and Higher Education Academy Open Educational Resources Programme (Phase 2), and aims to address some of the background issues regarding management of intellectual property rights (IPR) in UK universities. In particular, this guidance aims to assist institutions by prompting strategic decisions that may need to be taken in relation to the management of intellectual property, and to inform those decisions. This paper will focus on the issues surrounding copyright, as the management of potentially patentable inventions tends to be well serviced by university research offices, and the other types of intellectual property rights are secondary in importance to copyright (although not to be ignored). Although patent and copyright will be the two most significant types of IPR, it should be noted that a comprehensive approach will also deal with: Copyright related rights (including moral rights, performers? rights, and producers? rights) Database rights Design rights (including the design right, registered designs and semiconductor design right) Trademarks.