Issue link: https://htpgraphics.uberflip.com/i/116752
Intellectual Property Section 2 If you were thinking of delivering an on-line course on a separate website to that of your institution, you would need to first obtain a domain name at which you could set up the website through which your course could be accessed. Ideally, you should obtain a domain name which contains a reference to your course. If, as in the above example, your course was called 'THE CANCHEM PAPERS', you could check whether the domain name www.canchem.co.uk, or something close to it, was available. There would be advantages to this. Consumers may be able to guess the name of your website without having to search for it. Also, consumers would go to your website first and not be distracted by competing websites. Patents Patents can be granted for inventions that are new, inventive and capable of industrial application. This IP right does not usually have much relevance to academic materials and publishing. It is not possible to obtain patents for software as such e.g. you cannot obtain patent protection simply for computer programs embodying e-learning methods in Europe. The rules are different in other countries. For instance, computer programs can be patented in the USA. Recently, the US Patent and Trademark Office has granted a company a patent for learning management systems. It is claimed that the patent covers the core technology relating to the systems and methods involved in offering on-line education, including course management systems and enterprise e-learning systems i.e. common systems and methods that people in the HE sector have been using for a number of years. It remains to be seen whether this will have any impact in the UK, but you should be aware of the issue in case it does limit the learning environments that you can set up and use. Q: You have put together an on-line teaching package for a politics module of a course. The package includes various graphics that you have created or commissioned, the text of the teaching materials (written by you), photographs, film clips of, amongst other things, interviews with students at your institution and background music. You have written the source code for the software program that will support the teaching package. You have also included a table of all the experts in the field. What IP rights might there be in the package? 11