Piracy on the UCs

The University of Canterbury has released a new draft policy on intellectual property (IP) which, according to the Association of University Staff (AUS), is a sea change in the way staff and student rights are recognised and which puts the primary mission of the University as a public-good institution at risk.

AUS Canterbury Branch President, Associate Professor Jack Heinemann, says that under the draft policy the University’s senior management is claiming all ideas, concepts, improvements on existing products and all other developments that would normally be patented are now automatically University property.

AUS is concerned that the University could force the commercialisation of IP, or on-sell the rights to parties, even where the creator objected on moral or other grounds. Further, the University could prevent creators from pursuing their own ideas privately or with another employer even after leaving employment with the University. Heinemann believes that “even Blackbeard would be taken aback by this audacious plundering of individual property by the corporate identity of the University.”

Should the University decide an idea is patentable, it can prevent staff from publishing or talking to the media. In the short term, when harm to society and public health may not be provable, Professor Heinemann worries that staff will be under an obligation to put the profit motivations of the University before their obligations to what they might believe is the public good.

Professor Heinemann said that, if any financial proceeds arise from IP that was created wholly or in part with support from public funding, then the staff or student creator(s) should be bound to share the rewards of commercialisation with the University, and should be so bound indefinitely. But this should not entail forfeiture of ownership rights.

Existing policy allows the University to commercialise IP with the consent of the creator(s), and to purchase the IP rights from the creator(s). Existing policy is sufficient to secure a revenue stream from all IP developed using University resources that is commercialised without the need for the University to strip the creator of ownership.

The AUS will be holding meetings for its members and members of other Unions on campus over the weeks of 1 and 8 October, and will be actively coordinating its response with the University of Canterbury Students’ Association.

For further information or comment please contact
Jack Heinemann
jack.heinemann@canterbury.ac.nz