Introduction
Berea College is committed to providing an environment that supports the learning, teaching, scholarship, and creative activity of its faculty, students, and staff. Within this context, the Intellectual Property Rights Policy is intended to:
- encourage excellence and innovation in teaching, scholarship, and creative activities by identifying and protecting the intellectual property rights of faculty, staff, students, and the College;
- encourage the notion that creative and scholarly works produced at Berea College should advance the state of knowledge and contribute to the public good;
- acknowledge and preserve the traditional property rights of scholars with respect to products of their intellectual endeavors (e.g., books, articles, manuscripts, plays, writings, musical scores, and works of art); and
- guide policy and process for commercial uses of intellectual property other than the traditional products of scholarly work.
The following Policy covers all types of intellectual property, including, in particular, works protected by copyright, patent, and trade-secret laws. Although the following list is not exhaustive, it provides examples of the kinds of work the Policy addresses: inventions, discoveries, trade secrets, trade and service marks, writings, art works, musical compositions and performances, software, literary works, and architecture.