Employees, students and partners working on projects generate intellectual property (IP). Here is a short description how we handle IP in case of employee, students and how we share it with industrial partners:
Employee contribution
CIIRC owns the inventions made by its employees. IP developed by CIIRC employees is regulated according to the Czech Republic law and the CIIRC contract the employee signed upon joining CIIRC. There are some exception when working under a contract with industrial partners or during a consultancy. These exceptions must be specified in a contract before starting a project.
Student contributions
The IP policy developed by students depends on whether: Whether the invention was created by a student employed by CIIRC or during the education.
- If the student is employed and has a contract then the intellectual property handling is defined in the contract.
- If intellectual property was created as part of work under a contract or CIIRC grant, as in the previous case, then the way intellectual property is handled is governed by the rules set out in the contract.
- If intellectual property was created by a student as part of the educational process, then it is a school work and the student owns all copyrights. We often work in „open source“ that has the rules defined by the license. The type of license can be tailored to student requirements.
Sharing with industry
Most of the industrial projects are executed according to an agreement. The intellectual property may be exclusive or nonexclusive. The projects contracts are prepared and negotiated individually.