
Data protection, rights and access: Intellectual property rights (IPR)
What is IPR?
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) can be defined as rights acquired over any work created or invented with the intellectual effort of an individual. Common types of IPR include copyrights, patents, trademarks, geographical indications, industrial design rights, integrated circuits and design layouts and confidential information (trade secrets).
Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights, such as the ability to publish to various markets, license the manufacture and distribution of inventions, and sue in case of unlawful or deceptive copying.
As a researcher, you should clarify ownership of and rights relating to research data before a project starts. Ownership and rights will determine how the data can be managed into the future, so these should be documented early in a project through data management planning.
Who owns the IPR in my work?
Unless otherwise agreed, GCU owns Intellectual Property arising from research undertaken by employees in the course of the employment. This is typical of many institutions.
This is not the case for students, but sometimes postgraduate students' research is part of a University funded project. In some cases academic or commercial collaborators may have intellectual property rights in research outputs. Normally there are consortium agreements or legal contracts associated with such collaborations.
While commercially sensitive data are often not shared widely, there are options for doing so, such as after filing for a patent to protect the commercial application.