Assignment of Copyright – Like a sale of copyright, usually made in return for a lump sum payment of a share of the income produced by the work. For example, in the case of a music publishing agreement, a transfer of ownership of the song copyright from the songwriter to the music publisher is made in return for the promises the publisher makes in the music publishing agreement regarding advance and periodic payment of royalties to the author. In addition to assignment of an entire copyright, an author may also assign only part of a copyright. The copyright statute requires that the transfer of ownership of any copyright be made in a written document signed by the person assigning ownership of the copyright to someone else; no verbal assignment of copyright is possible. Anyone who acquires any right of copyright by assignment can, in turn, sell that right to someone else unless the written assignment of copyright provides otherwise. An assignment of copyright may also be referred to as a "transfer" of copyright. Assignment of copyright is one of three ways that ownership of rights in copyright is transferred to someone besides the author of the copyrighted work; the other two are license and work-for-hire.
Compilation – A work formed by the collection and assembling of pre-existing materials or of data that are selected, coordinated, or arranged in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship. The term "compilation" includes collective works.
Creator(s) – University employees and students, including research collaborators, visiting researchers, consultants, and contractors, who singly or as a group, produce written, visual, recorded, or other material that may be protected by copyright law.
Fair Use – An individual is free to copy from a protected/copyrighted work for
purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, or research so long as the value of the copyrighted work is not diminished. Section 107 of the copyright law outlines four factors to be considered in determining fair use: 1) The purpose and character of the use, (commercial/nonprofit educational), 2) The nature of the copyrighted work, 3) The amount and substantiality of the portion, and 4) The effect of the use upon the potential market. In addition, credit to the author(s)/creator(s) must be displayed on copied materials. (See www.copyright.gov for details.)
Funding Organization – A government, organization, or other entity that provides a grant or other funds specifically to fund the development of intellectual property. Said organization retains the ownership of the work which has been funded unless specified otherwise in the agreements for the funding.
Intellectual Property – Inventions, copyrights and copyrightable materials, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and other forms or types of intellectual property which may emerge in the future.
Intellectual Property Officer (IPO) – The person or persons appointed by the President to facilitate the development and legal protection of intellectual property on behalf of the University.
Permission – A consent to use a work, usually by reprinting or reproducing it in some other work, such as the reproduction of photographs in a biography of the subject of the photographs. Permissions are actually non-exclusive licenses to use a work in a specified way. The owner of copyright in the materials sought to be used may or may not be compensated for the use.
Public Domain – Primarily, works for which copyright protection has expired. The U.S. copyright statute is based on the assumption that creative people will be encouraged to be creative if they are given exclusive control for a period of time over the use of their works. After that control ends, the public benefits from the right to make unlimited use of the previously protected creations. When a work falls into the public domain the work has become available for fair use in any way by anyone. Besides works for which copyright protection has expired, the other major category of public domain works is works created by officers or employees of the U.S. government as part of their government jobs, which are in the public domain because the government has chosen not to claim copyright in works created at the taxpayers' expense.
Publication (including public display) – The distribution of copies or phonorecords to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending. The offering to distribute copies or phonorecords to a group of persons for purpose of further distribution, public performance, or public display, constitutes publication. A public performance or display of a work does not of itself constitute publication. To perform of display a work "publicly" means (1) to perform or display it at a place open to the public or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family, and its social acquaintances is gathered; or (2) to transmit or otherwise communicate a performance of display of a work to a place specified by clause (1) or to the public, by means of any device or process, whether the members of the public capable of receiving the performance or display receive it in the same place or in separate places at the same time or at different times. Because publication, in the context of copyright, can determine the expiration of the term of copyright for a work created as a work-for-hire or under a pseudonym, it can be very important to determine whether and when such a work has been published within the meaning of the copyright statute.
Research Foundation – The University of Northern Iowa Research Foundation (UNIRF) is the incorporated unit through which university intellectual properties are owned and managed, and fees, royalties, and other forms of income, but not including equity from intellectual properties are received, disbursed, and managed in accordance with the formula set forth below.
Term of Copyright – The period during which copyright protection endures for a copyrightable work. For any work created after December 31, 1977, copyright protection begins the moment the work is first fixed in tangible form, How long it last depends to a large extent on who created it and under what circumstances. Under ordinary circumstances, copyright protection lasts for the remainder of the life of the author of the work plus seventy years; if two or more authors jointly create a work, copyright protection will endure until seventy years after the last of the authors dies. If a work is created as a work-for-hire, anonymously, or under fictitious name, the term of copyright will be either one hundred and twenty years from the date the work was created or ninety-five years from the date is published, whichever period expires first.
Transfer of Copyright – Another term for assignment of copyright ownership. A transfer of copyright ownership is an assignment, mortgage, or exclusive license, or any other conveyance, alienation, or hypothecation of a copyright or any of the exclusive rights comprised in a copyright, whether or note it is limited in time or place of effect, but not including a nonexclusive license.
Work Made for Hire - A work created by an independent contractor (a freelancer) if the work falls into one of nine categories of specially commissioned works named in the U.S. copyright statute and both the independent contractor and the person who commissions the creation of the work agree in writing that it is to be considered a work-for-hire, or a work that is created by an employee as part of his or her full-time job. Works-made-for-hire belong to the employers of the people who create them, and those employees are considered the authors of those works for copyright purposes from the inception of the works. (Work-for-hire is one of the three ways that ownership of rights in copyright are transferred to someone besides the author of the copyrighted work; the other two are assignment of copyright and license of copyright.)
University Facilities – All University buildings, laboratories, classes, equipment, supplies, and/or services.
University Personnel – All members of the faculty, staff, and students, without exception.
University Sponsoring Unit (USU) – The college(s), or administrative unit outside the college, or the applicable divisional Vice Presidential office which contributes the financial support for personnel time, procurement, and/or prototype development of the intellectual property. The Dean of the college upon approval by UNIRF may designate a unit within that college as the USU for a specific Intellectual Property.
Written Materials – All literary, dramatic and musical material or works, and all other works such as, but not limited to, software, web-based instructional tools and programs, on-line original or proprietary databases and other information resources, lab manuals, study guides, and architectural designs published or unpublished, copyrighted or copyrightable at any time under the Federal Copyright Act as now existing or hereafter written, amended or supplemented.
Assignment of Copyright – Like a sale of copyright, usually made in return for a lump sum payment of a share of the income produced by the work. For example, in the case of a music publishing agreement, a transfer of ownership of the song copyright from the songwriter to the music publisher is made in return for the promises the publisher makes in the music publishing agreement regarding advance and periodic payment of royalties to the author. In addition to assignment of an entire copyright, an author may also assign only part of a copyright. The copyright statute requires that the transfer of ownership of any copyright be made in a written document signed by the person assigning ownership of the copyright to someone else; no verbal assignment of copyright is possible. Anyone who acquires any right of copyright by assignment can, in turn, sell that right to someone else unless the written assignment of copyright provides otherwise. An assignment of copyright may also be referred to as a "transfer" of copyright. Assignment of copyright is one of three ways that ownership of rights in copyright is transferred to someone besides the author of the copyrighted work; the other two are license and work-for-hire.
Compilation – A work formed by the collection and assembling of pre-existing materials or of data that are selected, coordinated, or arranged in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship. The term "compilation" includes collective works.
Creator(s) – University employees and students, including research collaborators, visiting researchers, consultants, and contractors, who singly or as a group, produce written, visual, recorded, or other material that may be protected by copyright law.
Fair Use – An individual is free to copy from a protected/copyrighted work for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, or research so long as the value of the copyrighted work is not diminished. Section 107 of the copyright law outlines four factors to be considered in determining fair use: 1) The purpose and character of the use, (commercial/nonprofit educational), 2) The nature of the copyrighted work, 3) The amount and substantiality of the portion, and 4) The effect of the use upon the potential market. In addition, credit to the author(s)/creator(s) must be displayed on copied materials. (See www.copyright.gov for details.)
Funding Organization – A government, organization, or other entity that provides a grant or other funds specifically to fund the development of intellectual property. Said organization retains the ownership of the work which has been funded unless specified otherwise in the agreements for the funding.
Intellectual Property – Inventions, copyrights and copyrightable materials, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and other forms or types of intellectual property which may emerge in the future.
Intellectual Property Officer (IPO) – The person or persons appointed by the President to facilitate the development and legal protection of intellectual property on behalf of the University.
Permission – A consent to use a work, usually by reprinting or reproducing it in some other work, such as the reproduction of photographs in a biography of the subject of the photographs. Permissions are actually non-exclusive licenses to use a work in a specified way. The owner of copyright in the materials sought to be used may or may not be compensated for the use.
Public Domain – Primarily, works for which copyright protection has expired. The U.S. copyright statute is based on the assumption that creative people will be encouraged to be creative if they are given exclusive control for a period of time over the use of their works. After that control ends, the public benefits from the right to make unlimited use of the previously protected creations. When a work falls into the public domain the work has become available for fair use in any way by anyone. Besides works for which copyright protection has expired, the other major category of public domain works is works created by officers or employees of the U.S. government as part of their government jobs, which are in the public domain because the government has chosen not to claim copyright in works created at the taxpayers' expense.
Publication (including public display) – The distribution of copies or phonorecords to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending. The offering to distribute copies or phonorecords to a group of persons for purpose of further distribution, public performance, or public display, constitutes publication. A public performance or display of a work does not of itself constitute publication. To perform of display a work "publicly" means (1) to perform or display it at a place open to the public or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family, and its social acquaintances is gathered; or (2) to transmit or otherwise communicate a performance of display of a work to a place specified by clause (1) or to the public, by means of any device or process, whether the members of the public capable of receiving the performance or display receive it in the same place or in separate places at the same time or at different times. Because publication, in the context of copyright, can determine the expiration of the term of copyright for a work created as a work-for-hire or under a pseudonym, it can be very important to determine whether and when such a work has been published within the meaning of the copyright statute.
Research Foundation – The University of Northern Iowa Research Foundation (UNIRF) is the incorporated unit through which university intellectual properties are owned and managed, and fees, royalties, and other forms of income, but not including equity from intellectual properties are received, disbursed, and managed in accordance with the formula set forth below.
Term of Copyright – The period during which copyright protection endures for a copyrightable work. For any work created after December 31, 1977, copyright protection begins the moment the work is first fixed in tangible form, How long it last depends to a large extent on who created it and under what circumstances. Under ordinary circumstances, copyright protection lasts for the remainder of the life of the author of the work plus seventy years; if two or more authors jointly create a work, copyright protection will endure until seventy years after the last of the authors dies. If a work is created as a work-for-hire, anonymously, or under fictitious name, the term of copyright will be either one hundred and twenty years from the date the work was created or ninety-five years from the date is published, whichever period expires first.
Transfer of Copyright – Another term for assignment of copyright ownership. A transfer of copyright ownership is an assignment, mortgage, or exclusive license, or any other conveyance, alienation, or hypothecation of a copyright or any of the exclusive rights comprised in a copyright, whether or note it is limited in time or place of effect, but not including a nonexclusive license.
Work Made for Hire - A work created by an independent contractor (a freelancer) if the work falls into one of nine categories of specially commissioned works named in the U.S. copyright statute and both the independent contractor and the person who commissions the creation of the work agree in writing that it is to be considered a work-for-hire, or a work that is created by an employee as part of his or her full-time job. Works-made-for-hire belong to the employers of the people who create them, and those employees are considered the authors of those works for copyright purposes from the inception of the works. (Work-for-hire is one of the three ways that ownership of rights in copyright are transferred to someone besides the author of the copyrighted work; the other two are assignment of copyright and license of copyright.)
University Facilities – All University buildings, laboratories, classes, equipment, supplies, and/or services.
University Personnel – All members of the faculty, staff, and students, without exception.
University Sponsoring Unit (USU) – The college(s), or administrative unit outside the college, or the applicable divisional Vice Presidential office which contributes the financial support for personnel time, procurement, and/or prototype development of the intellectual property. The Dean of the college upon approval by UNIRF may designate a unit within that college as the USU for a specific Intellectual Property.
Written Materials – All literary, dramatic and musical material or works, and all other works such as, but not limited to, software, web-based instructional tools and programs, on-line original or proprietary databases and other information resources, lab manuals, study guides, and architectural designs published or unpublished, copyrighted or copyrightable at any time under the Federal Copyright Act as now existing or hereafter written, amended or supplemented.
