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Sherma Edwards 1
DETT 611 Section, 9040

Sherma Edwards
DETT 611 Section, 9040
March 15, 2015
Ownership Policy Critique
The State of New York (SUNY)

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Introduction
In this 21st century, online or distance education (DE) continues to expand throughout
higher education (HE) institutions today. The constant change in DE, technology advancement,
teaching and learning methods, does create some major challenges for HE institutions. These
changes do impact the development of a copyright ownership policy that is beneficial, and one
that will consistently cater to the institution and its stakeholders need. HE institutions do struggle
with creating a system-wide or campus-wide copyright policy that will always remain reliable;
because of the way globalization has continued to impact our society. As a result, this paper will
examine the course ownership, provisions and copyright policy at The State of New York
(SUNY), how the policy may apply to DE and a critique of the overall strengths and weaknesses
of the policy will be discussed.
Overview & Ownership of Course Materials
Background
State University acknowledges that the three primary missions of an educational
institution are teaching, research, and public service (SUNY, 2007, para.1). The Creation of
scholarly works and research does add value to any organization. Therefore, SUNY has
implemented policies and procedures to allow their inventors, including faculty, staff and
students, aware of their rights and to make their work available to the public and its stakeholders.
These actions include, securing research support, identifying inventions, securing appropriate
patents, marketing inventions through licensing and other arrangements, and managing royalties
and other invention-related income (SUNY, 2007, para.1).

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SUNYs copyright policy existed as early as 1954 when the 1909 federal copyright act
was in effect (SUNY, 2015a, para. 2). However, SUNY strives to align its copyrighted policy
with a commitment to provide the people of New York with the highest quality of educational
services and tries to promote innovation and technology for its online programs. State University
aims to support and educate its members on copyright ownership conditions, through the use of
copyright work and infringement policy and copyright laws. SUNY abides and observes the
copyright laws and benefits from the Fair Use in its online programs, which allows the use of
copyrighted materials without permission for the copyright owner. However, the copyrighted
policy listed for the brick and mortar classes are the same for distance learning and provide no
distinctions. For this reason, many issues may occur in the future and must be addressed, in order
to adequately meet the institutions goals based on the reviewers observation and research.
Ownership opportunities
Generally SUNY faculty retains ownership of their work; however, the privilege to write,
to produce and to keep individual work must not interfere with university duties (SUNY, 2007).
Regardless of the method used to determine ownership, the institutions policy applies to faculty
materials used on the web for instruction, as well as those produced for the traditional classroom.
An inventor, who utilize the institutions facilities at any State-operated location is subject to the
policy that indicates each invention shall belong to the State University and should be
voluntarily disclosed, or shall be disclosed to State University upon request of the university
(SUNY, 2007, para.4). The policy does fail to express what will occur if the inventor fails to
comply. The inventor can then complete an application for patents, claiming his or her rights.

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This practice does not apply to non-university organizations and individuals utilizing university
research facilities under the trustees' policy on cooperative use of research equipment, or policy
and guidelines on use of State University facilities by emerging technology enterprises (SUNY,
2007, para. 4). Non-university employees will retain ownership of all patentable inventions
(SUNY, 2007, para.4).
SUNYs copyright and faculty ownership of intellectual property act falls under the
Federal Copyright Act, also known as, the work for hire. While employed or commissioned by
the university, any work regardless of how it is stored prepared by a faculty, employee or nonemployee, the work for contract allow either the institution or the creator to decide who will own
the copyright. However, under the 1909 copyright act, there was a common-law exception from
the work-for hire rule for faculty work, that is embedded in SUNYs copyright policy, giving
the faculty ownership to his or her work and privileges to related licenses (SUNY, 2015a, para 2).
Provisions
SUNY has an extensive list of provisions an inventor must follow and additional
examples can be found in the appendix A listed below. Regardless of those guidelines, any
inventor is entitled to request an exception or waiver to the provisions of the patents set by
SUNYs inventions policy as a method of addressing disputes. However, research will have to be
performed and the findings and recommendations made by the patents but the decision by
inventions policy board will be final (SUNY, 2007).
Risk Management
Organizations are exposed to risks that affect the ability to achieve long-term or shortterm goals. To address these risks, SUNYs compliance program tries to mitigate copyrightrelated risks via their online resources. SUNYs copyright policy focuses on the copyright laws,

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copyrighted works, ownership and the fair use; therefore punishment is equal to the severity of
the crime. Other references regarding compliance or risk resolution can be found with the use of
the institutions search engine but not their main policy webpage which can be frustrating for
stakeholders.
Strengths and Weaknesses
There are numerous strengths to SUNYs policy such as openness to the fair use,
compliance of the U.S. copyright laws on some levels, acknowledgment and steps constructed to
provide its inventors with the rights to scholarly completed work through support, marketing
inventions through licenses and financial gain.
However, there is an extensive list of weaknesses in SUNYs policy that can be derived
from the absence of clarifying language on distance learning, online instruction and course
development in SUNYs Title J & the Copyright and Faculty Ownership of Intellectual Property.
SUNYs policy also fails to address concerns especially related to its distance learning
environment. While the policy does benefit the traditional instruction, online environments are
ripe for misunderstanding and infringement by teachers and learners. After comparing SUNYs
policy with that of University of Maryland University Colleges (UMUC) copyright policy, this
perspective was concluded, as this school is an internationally recognized online institution.
SUNY will struggle to remain compliant of the U.S. copyright laws such as the
Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act (TEACH ACT) and Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). This leaves SUNY vulnerable to identifying works to be
covered by academic and professionals. It is also unclear, how much protection is granted to the
online professionals under SUNYs policy or when permission is required to obtain copyrighted

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works from its rightful owner. Additional guidelines for teachers and students are needed for
growth in distance learning markets.
Likewise, other limitations do exist, for example, a lack of guidelines to help students
understand copyright polices that can assist with teaching and promoting information literacy
(UMUC, 2015, para.3). In addition to the question, who owns contributions to a course authored
by a student could not be found easily on SUNYs website, also the policy fails to highlight the
concerns for ongoing use of course materials under the provisions section.
Conclusion
This policy at State University is adequate and effective in meeting the needs of its
inventors and aligning it with the institutions goals, mainly for brick and mortar instruction. The
policys strength does lists in-depth consideration provided to the creation and ownership of
materials but there is a definition deficiency, guidelines and explanation within the context of
distance education. By revamping the policy, SUNY will have a competitive edge in HE. It is
also recommended that this institution expand on categories of works covered on their copyright
policy webpage to better assist their students but there is room for improvement for other
stakeholders, such as the faculty members as well.

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References
Copyright and digital distance education: Hearing before Subcommittee on Courts and
Intellectual Property Committee on the Judiciary. United States House of
Representatives. 106th Congress, 1st Session. (June 24, 1999). (Testimony of Marybeth
Peters, Register of Copyright). Available
at http://www.copyright.gov/docs/regstat62399.html
The State of New York. (2014). Copyright and intellectual property issues related to open
SUNY. Retrieved from http://uupinfo.org/reports/reportpdf/IntellectualProperty.pdf
The State of New York. (2015a). Copyright and faculty ownership of intellectual property.
Retrieved from http://system.suny.edu/academic-affairs/faculty/faculty-ownership/
The State Of New York. (2015b). Mission statement. Retrieved from
http://www.suny.edu/about/mission/
The State of New York. (2013). Overview of risk management. Retrieved from
http://www.suny.edu/about/lead...the%20AC%20Oct%2028%202013.pdf
The State of New York. (2007). Title J- Patents, inventions and copyright policy. Retrieved from
https://www.suny.edu/sunypp/documents.cfm?doc_id=88
University of Maryland University College. (2015). Copyright and fair use. Retrieved from
http://www.umuc.edu/library/libhow/copyright.cfm#teachact

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Appendix A
Provisions

The inventor shall retain ownership as long as work is done solely by an inventor,
without the use of the institutions facilities. If work is related to his or her field of
competence and on his or her own time, outside of the assigned working hours, the
creator still obtains ownership (SUNY, 2007).

Inventions created and a contractual agreement made under the foregoing provisions with
the university that the invention shall belong to the institution, in recognition of the
meritorious services by the inventor, SUNY will make provision entitling the inventor
and the inventor's heirs or legatees to a non-assignable share in any proceeds from the
management and licensing of such invention to the extent of 40 percent of the gross
royalty paid, unless this exceeds the limits fixed by applicable regulations of the relevant
sponsoring agency, which will control in such cases (SUNY, 2007, para. 5).

If advice or services are obtained by SUNY from a non-profit patent management agency,
income may be shared between both parties but the inventor only collects his or her
monetary belongings (SUNY, 2007).

Patents may be granted exclusive licenses for a fixed period for the marketing of
inventions (SUNY, 2007, para.6). This helps to reach the public eye and serves as
potential increase in sponsorship and for additional research to be developed.

Once an inventor submits a disclosure and an application for patent to SUNY and the
institution decides not to file the patent, after six months of the initial submission, all

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rights are released to the inventor and not the institution. The inventor may then file for
patent on his or her own with an external sponsor (SUNY, 2007).

Any patent filed by SUNY and released to the inventor, a ten percent of net proceeds may
be deducted (SUNY, 2007).