The NC State Answer: A Tutorial on Our Copyright Ownership Regulation
The following pages are intended to introduce and familiarize NC State University faculty, staff, and students with the copyright ownership issues associated with works created during employment or enrollment at NC State. It is based on the North Carolina State University Administrative Regulation on Copyright Implementation. (REG 01.25.03)
Questions concerning further interpretation of this REG can be addressed to Peggy Hoon, Special Assistant to the Provost for Copyright Administration, David Drooz, Office of Legal Affairs, or the University Copyright Committee (via the Special Assistant). To disclose to the Copyright Committee, please use this form and send it to the Special Assistant to the Provost for Copyright Administration (Peggy). For basic copyright information, please refer to the Copyright Ownership Law section.
Learn About NC State's Copyright Regulation (REG 01.25.03)
The NC State REG was first implemented on August 13, 2001, and is based on the Copyright Use and Ownership Policy of the University of North Carolina as required. Our regulation has undergone several revisions to improve it but it has always been circumscribed by the University of North Carolina system policy.
This is the most frequent question presented to the University Copyright Committee. If our regulation were clear enough, wouldn't its readers be able to answer this question without resorting to the Copyright Committee? Having worked with the Copyright Committee since its inception, I suspect that most are answering this question themselves and that those disclosing to the Committee are individuals simply requiring a greater degree of certainty for one reason or another.
WHAT IS THE SHOP RIGHT???
Before getting involved in the details and definitions of the policy, it is critical that faculty and students understand the shop right, as defined and used in our policy. Basically, as between NC State and the creator, whoever doesn't hold the copyright holds a shop right. If the copyright holder decides to transfer or license the work, it will be important to disclose the existence of the shop right, for example, to a publisher. If NC State has the "shop right" that means it has the right to use the original work in NC State programs of teaching, research, and public service on a non-transferable, perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive basis. If the creator has the "shop right" that means the creator has the right to use the original work for his or her own teaching, research, and public service on a non-transferable, perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive basis. Having the "shop right" does not mean you can sell rights to the work or otherwise interfere with the copyright owner's ability to commercialize the work.
What does our regulation say about ownership? We start with your relationship to NC State.
© NC State Faculty, EPA, and Post-Docs
© Independent Contractor or Volunteer
What does our regulation say about commercialization of a work?
© Copyright is held by NC State
© Copyright is held by the creator
If a work is subject to both copyright and patent or trademark, the patent or trademark rules have priority. §6.3.3 and §6.3.4.