Intellectual Property

Deakin University not only regularly creates “Intellectual Property”, it also regularly uses both its own and third parties’ “Intellectual Property”.

“Intellectual Property” or “IP” is a general legal term used to describe “works of the intellect” or something created by intellectual effort. Deakin University has its own Statute, regulations and Enabling Policy which describe what constitutes University IP, as well as setting out the general rules governing the University’s IP. Some of the more commonly known sub-categories of IP include copyright, patents, trade marks, designs and confidential information.

Copyright subsists in the material form, print or digital, of things you probably know, such as books, theses, plays, songs, films, photographs and broadcasts, but it can also subsist in computer programs, some multi-media creations, and even “ordinary” tables, graphs and databases.

If you intend to use someone else’s copyright you should go to the Copyright website (link opens in new browser window) for the rules governing such use.
If you are dealing with or creating Deakin Course Materials, you should go to Copyright in Course Materials Policy (user authentication required) which contains information on the creation, use, protection and commercial exploitation of copyright in Course Materials.
If you are an individual creator or author of a copyright work, you are personally entitled to certain “moral rights”, which are essentially the rights of attribution and integrity of authorship. You should go to Copyright in Course Materials Policy (user authentication required) and the Copyright website for Deakin’s policy and procedures on the moral rights of authors of Deakin's Course Materials.

If you have a query about the creation, use or protection of IP which cannot be answered in any of the sources referred to above you may contact our intellectual property solicitor, Andrew Jenkins, on ext. 78528 or at andrew.jenkins@deakin.edu.au.