Use of Intellectual Property
Use of Intellectual Property - Policy Concerning the Assigning of Faculty Authored Textbooks or Other Intellectual Property to Students Taught by Same Faculty
Intellectual Property Notification and Compliance Form
Assignment of Textbooks or Other Intellectual Property
Section 1-84 of the Connecticut General Statutes prohibits public officials and other state employees from using their public office or position to obtain a financial gain for themselves or their family members or any business with which they are associated. A faculty member’s assignment of a textbook or other intellectual property authored or developed by the faculty member could be considered as “obtaining financial gain” for the faculty member in violation of the Connecticut State Ethics Code. No course instructor at SCSU shall receive any remuneration from a text, lab manual, or other work that they require Southern students to purchase unless they can document that the monies were donated to a university fund or another recognized 501(c)(3) entity where the faculty member derives no personal financial benefit. Before requiring students to purchase a textbook or intellectual property for a course that the faculty member authored or developed, the faculty member must provide documentation that: (a) a waiver to retain any profits has been granted by the Intellectual Property Committee, or (b) that any profits in the form of a financial gain will be directed to a University fund from which that faculty member derives no personal financial benefit, or (c) that the profits will be directed to another recognized 501(c)(3) entity. The faculty member is only permitted to receive a tax donation benefit relative to royalties or profits in cases when a waiver to retain profits has been approved by the Intellectual Property Committee, as noted in (a) above. In the other cases (b or c), the faculty member is not permitted to receive a tax donation benefit for these donations.
All full time and part-time faculty who require their own students to purchase the faculty member’s intellectual property are required to provide notification to the Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs. The Intellectual Property Notification and Compliance Form is available online.
Disallowed Use of Intellectual Property Compensation
As per the Connecticut State Ethics Officer, no member of the institution may donate funds to the Southern Connecticut State University Foundation and thereafter use those funds to benefit their own creative activities, scholarship, or professional travel, or similar activities or purchases. This guideline is as per State Regulation Section 1-85 and 1-86 of the State Code of Ethics.
Intellectual Property Notification and Compliance Form
The online Compliance Form below must be completed. View the form in its entirety here for reference only (not submission).
Waivers may be sought. Please also see the Compliance Form which allows for requests to retain profits obtained from our students for required course works. These requests will be reviewed by the Intellectual Property Committee.
In every two (academic) years, all faculty who require their own students to purchase the faculty member’s intellectual property are required to resubmit the Intellectual Property Notification and Compliance Form.
Failure to comply with this Policy constitutes a violation of the State Ethics Code and University policy and subjects the faculty member to an enforcement action by the State Ethics Commission and disciplinary procedures by the University.