Hi Tavis,

My answer is 'I don't know, I don't know and I don't know', but I think
this is of sufficient importance for you to open it up to the main
website-info-management list - would be interested to see a debate on
this and hear Brian Kelly's thoughts.

Cheers,

Mike

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Information Sharing List for Scottish Web Folk 
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tavis Reddick
> Sent: 09 September 2007 16:48
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Terms and conditions of employment, intellectual 
> property and open source development
> 
> Hi Scottish Web Folk
> 
> I've come across terms and conditions which spell out the 
> requirement that all inventions (including programs) created 
> by an employee must be rendered to the employer for possible 
> patenting under:
> 
>   The Patents Act 1977 (as amended)
>   www.ipo.gov.uk/patentsact1977.pdf
>   sections 39 to 42
> 
> What relevant terms and conditions are web folk and our 
> colleagues working under? What is the position of our 
> educational institutions (largely publicly funded) on 
> intellectual property in this sphere? And how does this 
> impact on open source development? Does any university or 
> college have an open source policy?
> 
> I imagine this affects the work of groups and mailing lists 
> like this one, as well as the wider web development 
> community. It would seem to run counter to sector projects 
> like those run under JISC auspices, where there are usually 
> open licences like Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike.
> 
> My personal view is that most patents in web development seem 
> to be malevolent (Eolas, BT), and the W3C has had to create a 
> robust patents policy:
> 
>   http://www.w3.org/2004/pp/
> 
> to keep its recommendations royalty-free. Some of us might 
> just want to exchange sample code, build common libraries of 
> objects, and produce demonstrators and prototypes to further 
> common goals.
> 
> 
> Tavis Reddick
> Web Developer
> Adam Smith College
> 
> 
> 
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