Intellectual property policy - higher degrees by research

Policy

Intellectual property

1. Description

Intellectual property is a term that covers a range of legal rights for the protection of creative effort, particularly the protection of economic investment in that creative effort. Intellectual property rights can be bought, sold, leased and dealt with like any other form of property such as land and goods. One of these rights is the right to prevent other people using the ideas or inventions¹.

2. Ownership

In accordance with the RMIT Intellectual Property Policy approved by Council in 2004, RMIT University does not normally claim ownership rights in the intellectual property which results from a program. Circumstances may exist, however, where RMIT University or another body may have an interest in that intellectual property. In order that such circumstances may be explained or anticipated, the matter of intellectual property should be discussed and agreed upon by the candidate, the senior supervisor and any external party/parties at the commencement of the program. Advice should be sought from the relevant business development unit of the College or the University’s Office of Research and Innovation if clarification is required.

3. Availability of a thesis

Availability of a thesis may be restricted for a period of up to three (3) years from its receipt by the Research Committee for reasons of commercial confidentiality or industrial security. In these circumstances, the senior supervisor with support from the Head of School or appropriate academic authority must apply to the Research Committee before the thesis is examined, requesting that:

a) the examiners be required to sign a confidentiality agreement approved by the Research Committee before examining the thesis/project;

b) each examiner be required to return his/her copy of the thesis/project after examination;

c) each examiner not be permitted to copy or circulate the thesis;

d) the final copy of the thesis/project be held by the SGR for three years before release to the Library.

4. Departures from normal practice

Any departures from normal practice must be recommended by Research Committee to Academic Board for approval by Council. In exceptional circumstances, the maximum three year period may be extended by the RMIT Council, on the recommendation of the Academic Board.

5. Laboratory work

All laboratory work done at RMIT as part of a research degree program must be recorded in notebooks that comply with the requirement stipulated in section 2 of the Joint NHMRC / Universities Australia/ARC Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research 2007 .

6. Authorship

See University Policy on Authorship, and section 5 of the Joint NHMRC / Universities Australia/ARC Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research 2007 .

1 See also Ownership of Intellectual Property in Universities: A Discussion Paper, AVCC, 2002.

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