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Basics / Patents / Contracts / Software / Creation of spin-off companies / Guidelines University of Zurich / Guidelines University of Bern / Downloads /  |
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Software
General information
Copyright
ICT Projects / Swiss Virtual Campus Projects
Support offered by UnitectraGeneral information Many types of software for different applications are developed at universities and are either used as tools for research and education projects or developed as independent products. Such products are often of commercial value to other universities and the private sector. The University owns the exploitation rights to software that was developed within an employee's official duties. Authors are compensated according to the guidelines of the university.  Copyright Copyright is a protection that covers individual, intellectual work, e.g. a text, a piece of music, fine art, computer programs or a combination of such works (multimedia products). A fully formulated text is protected by copyright , however, not the ideas and concepts behind it. The protection begins when any of the above described work is actually created and fixed in a tangible form. Although not compulsory, the use of a copyright sign is recommended (©). The rights of the author or creator of the work are divided into the exploitation right and the personality rights of the author or creator. The former includes the protection of the financial interests of the author or creator such as the copying, distribution, rental, performance, or transmission of the work whereas the latter includes recognition of authorship, the right to be the first to publish, the mentioning of author names , and the integrity of the work. Copyright expires 70 years (50 years in the case of computer programs) after the death of the author or creator. A more detailed description of copyright protection can be found here. ICT Projects / Swiss Virtual Campus Projects In view of a later commercialization of products resulting from such projects it is important that all rights to the contents and the software belong to the university. When licensing out certain parts of a project to third parties (e.g. software development) it is important to consider the following points:
Even though the internet and the electronic world in general sometimes appear to be a space where no laws are enforced, the contrary is true. Work of third parties can be used freely and without the author's permission (and maybe financial compensation) only by students under password protection. In all other cases a prior permission of the owner to use the rights (author, publisher) is required. Digital educational products have a commercial value and often publishers and other providers of e-learning products (commercial training and education programs) would like to use them. Offers from third parties need careful evaluation. In addition, all licensing contracts require the written approval of the university administration. Revenues resulting from the commercialization of digital educational programs are distributed according to the university guidelines for the commercialization of research results. Support offered by Unitectra Unitectra offers assistance for the exploitation of software and multimedia products. We support you in your search for licensees, and help you with the negotiation and drafting of licensing agreements. Unitectra advises university employees in legal issues regarding the development of software and of multimedia products. Please fill in the Software Disclosure Form and send it to us or contact us directly. Together with the inventors we will study the situation for each specific case and define a commercialization strategy. There are many possibilities to be considered, e.g. an exclusive license, a non-exclusive license, shareware, OpenSource, just to mention a few. |