Principal investigators of sponsored projects must be cognizant of various federal, state, and campus regulations that govern intellectual property. As an institution that receives federal funds and as a publicly-controlled institution of higher education, UWM requires all individuals engaged in the research and development enterprise to understand their role in the intellectual property process.
These responsibilities involve the creation and maintenance of a system of records that provides evidence of authorship or ownership, as well as required disclosures about discoveries arising from research at UWM.
There are many other complex considerations related to patents and copyright, and to the co-ownership of patents and copyright by researchers and the UWM Research Foundation. When a Research Assistant is in a position that might result in a publication or an intellectual property disclosure, the disclosure should clearly address authorship and the ownership of intellectual property rights of the material. Research Assistants and their supervisors should discuss these and other matters as early in the process as possible to avoid misunderstandings.
Research Assistants should not submit research work for presentation at conferences or for publication, engage in any interviews with press, or share their work on social media without prior consultation with their supervisor.
For more information, see the Intellectual Property webpage at UWM’s Office of Research.
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