The GW Patent and Scholarly Work Policy

The university seeks to serve the needs of society in the course of pursuing the traditional principles of education and research, as well as patient care. It has dedicated itself and all its resources to the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge. It does not pursue knowledge for primarily commercial purposes. However, the university recognizes that the interest of the inventors and that of the university are better served when inventions and discoveries made by university faculty, staff, or students are developed to the point of practical application. The university's Policy on Patents and Scholarly Works is intended to facilitate that objective.

The university's Policy on Patents and Scholarly work applies to all faculty, staff, and students of the university. While it imposes certain obligations on faculty, staff, and students who conduct research, the purpose of this document is to adopt an inventor-friendly process in dealing with patents and scholarly works.

The complete GW Patent and Scholarly Work Policy.

The GW Copyright Policy

The university encourages the creation and publication of scholarly, technical, literary and artistic works as part of its educational mission. Generally, when the faculty, librarians, or students by their own initiative create copyrightable works, in pursuit of their normal scholarly, professional, or academic responsibilities, including normal use of the university's physical facilities, , the copyright and any resulting royalties may be claimed by the faculty, librarian, or student as author of the copyrighted work. However, when a work qualifies as a “Work Made for Hire" or when "Substantial Use" of university resources is involved, as defined in the policy below, the copyright in such work shall be owned by or transferred to the university. When staff or students create copyrightable works within the scope of their employment duties at the university, the copyright will generally belong to the university. For faculty and librarians, the university only claims ownership of the copyright if the work qualifies as a “Work Made for Hire”, or if the work's creation required “Substantial Use” of university Resources.

The complete GW Copyright Policy.