Northeast Alabama Community College encourages its students, faculty, and staff to pursue initiatives that will create intellectual properties and distance education courses. Consequently, it becomes necessary to clearly establish the legal rights of ownership of intellectual properties. The NACC policy is as follows: Any ownership or royalty issues not discussed herein shall be determined on a case-by-case basis prior to the development of the course.
If a student, faculty, or staff member develops an original course offering, without any assistance or resources of the College and completely on his or her own time, then he or she shall retain one hundred percent (100%) ownership of the intellectual property rights to the course, including the right to all proceeds should the course become commercially marketable.
If a student, faculty, or staff member develops an original course offering using any assistance or resources of the College but completely on his or her own time, then he or she shall be entitled to receive fifty percent (50%) of any royalties should the course become commercially marketable. The College, however, will retain full ownership of the intellectual property rights to the course.
If a student, faculty, or staff member develops an original course offering using any assistance or resources of the College and on release time, then he or she shall be entitled to receive twenty-five percent (25%) of any royalties should the course become commercially marketable. The College, however, will retain full ownership of the intellectual property rights to the course. To obtain release time to develop a course, a student, faculty, or staff member must obtain prior permission from the President.
Students, faculty, or staff will formalize their agreement with the appropriate Dean and President’s approval.