Know your rights and responsibilities as creators of intellectual property

It is important as a graduate student to be aware of your rights and responsibilities with respect to the intellectual property that you create or co-create.

It is very important that you meet with your advisor to have an open discussion about your advisor’s expectations and practices around authorship and other intellectual property issues. This conversation should take place early in your program and certainly before the start of a research project.

There are a number of resources and services that are available to assist you to understand your rights and responsibilities pertaining to IP. The Canadian Association for Graduate Studies has published a valuable guide to intellectual property . This document is a great primer on intellectual property, and provides information on authorship, copyright, and dispute resolution issues.

It is very important to consider intellectual property issues within the context of the University of Manitoba policies. The University of Manitoba has a collection of policies on Research Ethics with which you should become familiar.

In addition to these policies, it is important to recognize that intellectual property questions or issues ought to be considered within a larger context including:

• the conventions of the discipline
• your department’s supplemental regulations or unwritten practices
• your advisor’s expectations
• the external stakeholders requirements (external funding agency)

Keep in mind that your rights might change given your role, for example, student versus paid employee.

The Technology Transfer Office provides intellectual property asset services to researchers and inventors at the University of Manitoba. The office is a clearinghouse for information and assistance related to intellectual property questions and issues.

For questions about copyright, patents or inventions please consult the University of Manitoba's Patents and Copyright bylaw.