Faculty Rights in Intellectual Property
Personal Works
"Personal works are owned by the creator of the work."
Personal works are works"created by an employee... outside his or her scope of employment and without the use of college or university resources other than resources that are available to the public or resources for which the creator has paid the requisite fee to utilize. Intellectual property rights in personal works belong to the creator of the work." (Board Policy 3.26, Part 4, Subpart A.4)
The key here is that the works must unquestionably be created outside the scope of employment. For example, the American History professor who writes a work of historical fiction over the summer; the fine arts instructor who paints watercolors as gifts for family and friends during non-working hours; and the music teacher who composes a piece for use by her church choir have all created personal works. All of the created works take advantage of the talents of the creators, and possibly even the creators' experience as faculty members to some degree, but they are still personal works created outside the scope of employment.
