Ownership of Intellectual Property

This policy applies to all EMCC employees, students, and partnerships with external agencies into which the College enters. EMCC encourages the development, writing, invention, or production of intellectual property designed to improve the productivity of the College, to enhance the teaching and learning environment, and to contribute to the betterment of the community. Intellectual property includes but is not limited to intellectual and creative works that can be copyrighted or patented, such as literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, computer software, multimedia presentations, and inventions. EMCC employees and students own all rights to copyrightable or patentable independent works created by that person without College support. Unless otherwise provided in a rights agreement, the College owns all rights to a copyrightable or patentable work created with College support.

In all cases, the EMCC Board of Trustees reserves the right to enter into contractual agreements for ownership of intellectual property at the recommendation of the President.

For further information on the guidelines related to this topic, consult the EMCC Policies and Procedures manual.