UWL student intellectual property rights policy and guidelines

1. Introduction and scope of the policy

1.1 The University of West London (UWL) aims to encourage and support creativity and innovation by both staff and students. UWL benefits as a whole where creativity and innovation are able to develop. This document sets out UWL’s formal policy in relation to the promotion, publication, ownership, regulation and management of Intellectual Property created by all UWL students.

1.2 The policy reflects the provisions of relevant legislation including; Intellectual Property Act 2014, Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended), Patents Act 1977 (as amended), Registered Designs Act 1949 (as amended).

1.3 In relation to students who are also employed by the University, IP created within the boundaries of their student activity will be considered “UWL Student IP” and IP created within their employment role, is outside the scope of this policy. If it is not clear in regards to the above, the IP will be considered to have been created through their employment.

2. Aims of this policy

2.1 The policy on Intellectual Property aims to:

• promote and proactively support innovation and creativity at UWL.
• provide clarity over the ownership of IP for UWL Undergraduate (UG) and Postgraduate Taught Students.
• provide clarity over the ownership of IP for UWL Postgraduate Research (PGR) Students
• put in place a framework to assist in the exploitation/ commercialisation by means of profit sharing arrangements (“UWL Profit Share”) for the benefit of the originator of the UWL Student IP and UWL.
• Provide clarity over the ownership of IP for Apprentices undertaking an Apprenticeship Training Programme at UWL.

2.2 This Policy forms part of the Terms and Conditions for students and is binding upon UWL students as a condition of enrolment at the UWL.

2.3 UWL reserves the right to modify or add to this policy at any time, although any such modifications or additions will not affect the treatment of any UWL Student IP that has come into existence prior to the date of the modification or addition.

2.4 Advice and guidance should be sought by students regarding this policy from their personal tutor, supervisor, University Secretary, UWL copyright officer or other relevant UWL staff.

3. Definitions

“Apprentice” means a person who is enrolled on an Apprenticeship Training Programme (whether full-time or part-time) at UWL as part of their Apprenticeship with their Employer;

“Apprenticeship” means an apprenticeship programme offered by the Employer to the Apprentice under an Apprenticeship Agreement and/or Employment Agreement;

“Apprenticeship Agreement” means an apprenticeship agreement made between the Employer and the Apprentice in accordance with the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009;

“Apprenticeship Training Programme” means an apprenticeship training programme (forming part of the academic element of the Apprenticeship) delivered by UWL;

“Employer” means the employer which enters into an Apprenticeship Agreement and/or Employment Agreement with the Apprentice for the provision of the Apprenticeship;

“Employment Agreement” means an employment agreement entered into between the Employer and the Apprentice;

“Intellectual Property” (IP) means patents, copyright, trade marks, database rights, design rights, rights in respect of confidential information, registered designs and any other intellectual property rights, whether registered or unregistered, and including applications (and rights to apply, renew or extend rights) for any of the above in any other country of the world. More information about what is covered by the term Intellectual Property can be found on the IPO’s website.

“UWL” means The University of West London.

“UWL UG and PGT Students” means any student during his or her period of enrolment at UWL whether registered full or part time on either an undergraduate or postgraduate taught course.

“UWL PGR Student” means any student during his or her period of enrolment at UWL whether registered full or part time on a research degree programme.

“UWL Student IP” means Intellectual Property created independently by UWL students in the course of their studies, including but not limited to creative work and research.

“UWL Profit Share” means commercialisation profit sharing arrangements put in place to support the exploitation of Intellectual Property generated by UWL staff and UWL students.

“UWL Institutional Repositories” means the UWL online databases for publication of material including but not limited to dissertations and theses in the public domain through the use of the databases.

4. Ownership of UWL Student IP for UG and PGT students

4.1 UWL Student IP for UG and PGT students will normally belong to the student. Exceptions are outlined below, but in each case, the student must be informed that any IP created will not belong to them at the outset of the module, placement etc.

4.2 Joint sponsorship:

UWL UG and PGT Students who are also registered with another institution will be required to assign UWL Student IP in accordance with the arrangements between the two institutions.

4.3 External Sponsorship, funding body or grant:

Any UWL UG or PGT Student receiving external funding/sponsorship should be informed of the provisions of the funding contract in respect of the ownership of Intellectual Property Rights by his/her supervisor/tutor prior to the commencement of any work.

4.4 Students on placement:

The IP created by students on placement will belong to the Placement Provider as outlined in the tripartite agreement with the provider, the student and the University. The University and the Student are granted a royalty free license to use this IP for non-commercial purposes.

4.5 Consultancy work:

UWL UG and PGT Students working with an external institution on a project as part of their course will be required to assign UWL Student IP in accordance with the arrangements between the institution and UWL. UWL will negotiate with the institution for the best terms for the student and inform the students of this in advance of the work starting.

4.6 Collaborative work with academic staff including but not limited to modules designed to develop IP or the creation of original works:

Any UWL Student IP is automatically transferred to UWL at the outset of any such project. Students will be informed of this ahead of starting the project through the module study guide, if module based, or via direct communication if not and alerted to this policy.

4.7 Collaborative work will normally include UG and PG projects and dissertations where the work has been supervised by staff and creative and design projects. Any later commercial exploitation resulting in financial gain from the IP assigned to the University will be subject to this policy as outlined in section 9 below.

4.8 Student entrepreneurs who are registered with the Westmont Hub will sign a separate license with UWL for work produced under this body and will be outside the scope of this policy.

4.9 Apprentices

The ownership of any IP created by an Apprentice during the course of, or for any purpose connected with, their study of the Apprenticeship Training Programme with UWL will be governed by the terms of the Apprenticeship Agreement (if any) and/or Employment Agreement (if any) entered into between the Apprentice and the Employer (“Apprenticeship IP”). Where the Apprenticeship Agreement and/or Employment Agreement does not specify ownership of such Apprenticeship IP, it will be owned by the Apprentice. UWL will have access to the Apprenticeship IP for the purpose of carrying out its education responsibilities to Apprentices.

5. Ownership of UWL student IP for PGR students

5.1 UWL PGR student IP will belong to UWL, except in the exceptions outlined below.

5.2 Joint sponsorship:

UWL PGR students who are registered with another institution will be required to assign UWL Student IP in accordance with the arrangements between the two institutions.

5.3 External Sponsorship, funding body or grant:

Any UWL PGR student receiving external funding/sponsorship should be informed of the provisions of that contract in respect of its ownership of Intellectual Property Rights by his/her supervisor prior to the commencement of any work.

5.4 Consultancy work:

UWL PGR students working with an external institution on their research will be required to assign UWL student IP in accordance with the arrangements between the institution and UWL. UWL will negotiate with the institution for the best terms for the student and inform the students of this in advance of the work starting.

6. Licenses and rights for UWL PGR student IP

6.1 UWL will automatically assign a non-exclusive royalty-free license to all UWL postgraduate research students for any IP generated through their research, whilst registered with UWL, that UWL has the rights for. The royalty-free license would allow the student to publish the thesis as a piece of scholarly work (as set out in 7.1 below). This excludes the exceptions listed in 5.1-5.4 above. Any later exploitation resulting in financial gain will be subject to UWL policy on the commercialisation of IP as set out in section 8 below.

6.2 The moral right for a student to be known as the (co) author/creator of the IP is not affected by this policy.

7. Copyright

7.1 The copyright in any work or design compiled, edited or otherwise brought into existence by a student as a piece of scholarly work shall belong to the student unless otherwise explicitly agreed at the outset of the project. This includes items such as books, contributions to books, articles and conference papers, and shall be construed in the light of the common understanding of the phrase ‘scholarly work’ in higher education.

7.2 Help and guidance on copyright, using 3rd party copyright and the coverage of the CLA license, please consult: https://uwl.libguides.com/copyright

8. UWL rights in relation to all students

8.1 UWL claims the following rights in relation to UWL UG, PGT and PGR students:

• To reproduce UWL Student Work without a fee for non-commercial purposes
• To show Student IP to professional statutory bodies, to potential students or in any other manner supportive of creative expression in UWL
• To digitise and make public theses and place these in a UWL Institutional Repository. This will be controlled by the University in accordance with its normal academic practice taking into account any Institutional Repository Policy

9. UWL arrangements to support the exploitation/commercialisation of Intellectual Property

9.1 Where the University has supported the exploitation and commercialisation of IP created by students, the student will be entitled to a proportion of the net returns resulting from such commercialisation in accordance with his/her contribution. This applies to IP created by PGR students which is owned by the University, to IP created by UG and PG students through collaboration with staff (e.g. projects or creative work supervised by members of staff) (see 4.6-4.8 above).

9.2 The University recognises the contribution staff, students and Schools/Colleges (collectively termed “creators”) play in the capture and exploitation of IP, and therefore provides financial reward to these parties. Financial reward can take two forms, profit sharing and equity and a profit sharing agreement will ensure that all stakeholders directly involved in creating intellectual property are properly rewarded in the event of successful commercial exploitation.

9.3 The moral right for a student to be known as the (co) author/creator of the IP is not affected by this commercialisation.

9.4 The commercialisation of the IP will normally require confidentially of the IP before and during this period and may result in delayed publication of the output in dissertations, theses, research articles etc. Students should seek advice regarding this as soon as they believe that it might be possible to exploit commercially the IP being generated. Whilst this advice is being sought, the IP will be considered confidential by all relevant parties.

9.5 Profit is defined by the University as income after recovery of full economic costs.

9.6 Profit share will only be paid to IP creators once all the costs involved in the protection and exploitation of the IP, including legal fees, have been deducted, and will be distributed from net profit to the University.

9.7 If UWL decides not to exploit the IP rights assigned to it, on request of the student, it will reassign them back to the student for his/her own use. UWL will still retain the rights noted in sections 5 and 8 above.

10. Students in academic partners

10.1 The IP of students at partners institutions will be normally be subject of the agreement between the Student and the academic partner. The only exception to this would be if UWL staff had substantial input into the creation of the IP. The arrangements for this would be as specified in the contract between the institutions and would be made clear to students up-front.

11. Disputes

11.1 Disputes arising will be dealt with under this policy and the Student Complaints Policy does not apply.

11.2 In the event of a dispute, the UWL student may appeal to the Intellectual Property Rights Panel and the panel will comprise of:

• Head of Research and Operation
• An appropriate academic representative
• The University Copyright Officer

11.3 The UWL student should put his/her appeal in writing setting out the grounds of the appeal and send it to the University Secretary within 28 days of the disputed issue being identified or sooner if there is an urgent reason to do so.

11.4 The University Secretary will acknowledge the written appeal and shall convene the Intellectual Property Rights Appeal Panel to consider the appeal within 15 working days unless there is an urgent reason to convene the panel sooner.

11.5 The UWL student may be accompanied at the hearing by a fellow student or Students’ Union Representative.

11.6 The Intellectual Property Rights Appeal Panel shall give the student its decision within 5 working days unless it requires external legal advice from its advisers in which case it will notify the student of the reason for its delay in issuing its decision.

11.7 Should the UWL student wish to request a review of the decision of The Intellectual Property Rights Appeal Panel the matter will be referred to an independent mutually agreed external expert, whose decision will be binding on UWL and the UWL student.

11.8 Any later commercial exploitation resulting in financial gain will be subject to this policy.