Trends in Intellectual Property: Focus on Ownership and the IT Professional

摘要

Due to changes in the legal environment surrounding the patent process, today's IT professional can view himself or herself as a potential inventor with the ability to produce a patentable product with commercial value, The recognition that software and business methods are now patentable and that a researcher may retain ownership of IP that the researcher develops under federal grants have opened a new window of opportunity for both individual and organizational financial gain. In the academic sphere, institutions and their faculty will be able to achieve agreement regarding ownership of intellectual property, when dreams of instant endowment or personal gain are tempered by the reality that not all intellectual property is financially worthwhile and that the cost to develop such property may be prohibitive. Too much assertion of ownership by an institution will be a disincentive to faculty creativity. On the other hand, too little assertion may, in some cases, cost an institution a great sum. For IT professionals both within and without academia, IP creation is still in its infancy, and they should take some time to understand their rights to own and to exploit, what they create.