With a majority vote, the Faculty Senate has approved a new policy outlining the rights to intellectual property created at the University.

The guidelines, which must be approved by the CWRU Board of Trustees to become effective, more broadly define intellectual property while promoting a "culture and spirit of innovation, creativity, imagination, dynamism and scholarship that characterizes a research university," the draft states.

Presented to the full senate with the support of the group's executive committee and its committee on research, the new policy expands the previous guidelines-approved in 1973 and amended in 1986-to include more than just inventions and discoveries.

Intellectual property as it is newly defined includes any research results "having potential commercial value produced by University faculty, staff and students in connection with activities funded by the University and/or external funding sources or using University employees, facilities or equipment," according to the draft. Copyrightable materials, like books, musical and dramatic works and educational software, are not included.

The new policy also delineates the role of the University's new technology transfer office in commercializing intellectual property and gives the office 120 days, after receiving complete disclosure, to decide whether the University will pursue commercialization.

The division of income in the new intellectual property policy remains the same: Net income of up to $100,000 will be divided equally between the creator or creators and the University. A new provision calls for a 15 percent "administrative charge" to help fund the technology transfer office—and, therefore, "promote a more active University role in commercializing intellectual property"—to be deducted from net income that exceeds $100,000.

Under the new guidelines, disputes will be heard by the faculty committee on research or its designated group, which will then make recommendations to the University president.

In other business, the senate approved revisions to the bylaws of the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences and the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing. These modifications do not need board approval.