Intellectual Property

One question that came up in discussions among NEWPATH students and faculty related to intellectual property (IP); and whether OSU would make any claims on ventures that NEWPATH students might create. The NEWPATH team has discussed this question with the OSU IP office and obtained their assurance that, given the nature of the NEWPATH program, OSU will not make such claims. Specifically, the IP office has assured us that:

The University would not claim rights in the work product/intellectual property of NEWPATH students unless any of the following apply:

• the work is based upon existing OSU intellectual property (I.e. background IP);
• the work is dependent upon other current (or future) sponsored research programs elsewhere in the institution;
• a faculty member steps out of their mentoring role, and they themselves make an inventive contribution (i.e. are a named inventor on a patent relating to the work);
• significant University resources and/or personnel, other than the students, are used to create the work (e.g. 100's of hours of supercomputing time, repeated use of core laboratory facilities or shops, hosting on OSU servers, extensive graphic design services by departmental staff, etc.)

If any of the above are/become applicable, we should revisit the matter for that particular situation. (Note: Though the situation should be reviewed, even then a license from OSU may not be required.)

Lastly, if an OSU faculty/staff member intends to be an owner/founder of any start-up in which the students are involved, then there may be issues as well which require further discussion.