Protecting Government Works: The Copyright Issue; Journal article

摘要

The federal government, through its employees and contractors, produces commercially valuable inventions and information every day, often without any protection of the intellectual property involved. Intellectual property protection may provide sufficient incentive to investors to commercialize by granting a measure of exclusivity for a period of time. Federal program managers and directors, as well as private sector investors, should become familiar with all available intellectual property protection, such as: copyright law, including its impact on government works, those created by federal and contract employees; the alternatives that would permit the Government to own the copyright in government works ; the ability to allow private sector companies to assign coauthored works; and the importance to a federal technology manager of such protection.