Overview

It is natural and expected that PSU members will create original copyrightable material during their course of work in the university. Copyrightable material comes in a variety of forms, including but not limited to: books, literally work, audiovisual works, graphic design, plays, software systems, hardware designs, pictorial work, …etc.
The original works created by PSU members may include patentable or commercializeable materials that require some support from the university. An important prerequisite for patenting and commercialization of works is deciding who owns the copyright for the created works.
Ownership of copyright to material gives the owner the exclusive rights to reproduce the material, derive other works based on it, distribute copies to the public, commercialize the work and perform or display the material publicly.

Purpose

The main purpose of this policy is to regulate and assign copyright to created works based on international best practices.

Scope:

This policy applies to:

1. All PSU members and visitors who have an official appointment at PSU
2. PSU members who are on a paid leave and create copyrightable material during such leaves

Policy:

Under the copyright policy, copyrightable works created by PSU members in the course of employment in PSU will be owned by the University.
In some circumstances, the university may opt to exempt some types of works and transfer copyright ownership to the creators of the work.
The following sections provide details for the categories and situations where PSU will claim or transfer copyright.

1. Authorship Rights:
• PSU differentiates between traditional scholarly works created in the context of normal academic activities, and those created with substantial support from the university (either financial or extensive use of resources)
• Where the university retains ownership for the copyright, it will acknowledge all creators with substantial contributions to the work.
• The university will do its best to license and commercialize all works under its copyright.
• The resulting revenue will be distributed between the creators and the university according to the commercialization scheme given in PSU Commercialization policy.
1. PSU Transfers Authorship Rights for Traditional Scholarly Works to Creators: Based on traditional practices in international universities, PSU transfers (declines to assert ownership) the copyright for scholarly work created by PSU members in the course of traditional academic activities.

Examples of Scholarly Works Created in the course of academic activities include:

• syllabi and other original materials created for use in a University course,
• books (including textbooks),
• other forms of textual material (whether in printed form or electronic media),
• software,
• architectural works,
• pictorial and graphic works,
• motion pictures, and sound recordings, which in each case are created as part of the regular academic and scholarly activities of a person covered by this Policy.

2. PSU Retains Copyright for Supported Authorship Works:

The University retains copyright ownership for authorship works that are supported by the university at levels beyond the normal use of resources. These include:

• Authorship works created with substantial use of University resources, including direct financial or the involvement of university staff and personnel beyond the level of common resources provided to faculty.
• Authorship works especially created or commissioned for use by the University;
• Authorship works created in the context of a funded project (based on the signed contract).
• Documents created by university administrators and officers as part of their duties and assignments.
• Ordinary use of resources such as the library, Office equipment, personal computers, University IT facilities, secretarial staff and supplies, is not considered to be substantial use of such resources

2. Materials Created in Conjunction with Inventions:
   All copyrightable material created in conjunction with inventions will be handled by PSU Patent Policy as part of the respective invention
3. Other Categories of Works:
   PSU will assert copyright ownership for the following categories of works
• Institutional publications, documents, manuals, reports, media productions College and Department productions prepared through collaborative efforts Courseware and course content created by colleges and departments in the context of degree or non-degree programs. "Courseware" is the set of tools and technologies used to present course content, and are independent of the content itself.
• Video and Media Recordings, but not the intellectual property of the content itself
• Software; if patentable or represents an invention, otherwise the university will not claim copyright.
• Consultation works: the university will not assert copyright for works resulting from outside consultation, if the member does not make substantial use of university resources. However, all PSU members should comply with the university consultation policy, the university conflict of interest policy and other related policies.
• Works produced by nonemployees: The category of nonemployees includes consultants, subcontractors, and similar interim visitors. The university asserts copyrights to the works prepared by nonemployees. In such cases, the ownership of copyright for the resulting works should be documented through a signed contact with respective parties
4. Disclosure of Copyrightable Works:
• Creators are required to disclose on time any copyrightable works in which the university may claim rights.
• The disclosure should include the context in which the works has been created, description of the university resources used, financial relationships with third parties that may have some effects on the university rights.