Universities generate an enormous amount of intellectual property, including copyrights, trademarks, patents, Internet domain names, and even trade secrets. Until recently, universities often ceded ownership of this property to the faculty member or student who created or discovered it in the course of their research. Increasingly, though, universities have become protective of this property, claiming it for their own use and licensing it as a revenue source instead of allowing it to remain in the public sphere. Many universities now behave like private corporations, suing to protect trademarked sports logos, patents, and name brands.
Yet how can private rights accumulation and enforcement further the public interest in higher education? What is to be gained and lost as institutions become more guarded and contentious in their orientation toward intellectual property? In this pioneering book, law professor Jacob H. Rooksby uses a mixture of qualitative, quantitative, and legal research methods to grapple with those central questions, exposing and critiquing the industry's unquestioned and growing embrace of intellectual property from the perspective of research in law, higher education, and the social sciences.
While knowledge creation and dissemination have a long history in higher education, using intellectual property as a vehicle for rights staking and enforcement is a relatively new and, as Rooksby argues, dangerous phenomenon for the sector. The Branding of the American Mind points to higher education's love affair with intellectual property itself, in all its dimensions, including newer forms that are less tied to scholarly output. The result is an unwelcome assault on the public's interest in higher education.
Presuming no background knowledge of intellectual property, and ending with a call to action, The Branding of the American Mind explores applicable laws, legal regimes, and precedent in plain English, making the book appealing to anyone concerned for the future of higher education.
Preface Acknowledgments
Chapter 1 Intellectual Property, Higher Education, and the Public Good Of Mice and Money Public Goods and Private Goods: Higher Education and Intellectual Property Private Rights, Public Goods, and the Role of Institutional Agency Why Intellectual Property Law and Policy Matter to Higher Education Outline of the Book
Chapter 2 Intellectual Property Explained Copyright Patent Trademark Trade Secret Internet Domain Names Right of Publicity
Chapter 3 University Rolling Heads, Rolling Tide The Emergence of Trademark Protection in Higher Education Trademark Rights Accretion in Higher Education The Harms That Come from Trademark Rights Accretion Trademark Rights Accretion and the Public Good Higher Education's Trademark Enforcement Itch Trademark Enforcement and the Public Good Private Rights, Public Goods
Chapter 4 University Patents Under the Sun Our Bodies, Their Genes University Engagement in Patenting and Technology Transfer Pre-1980 Activity Post-1980 Activity Institutional Intellectual Property Polices and Structures Affecting Patenting University Patenting and Technology Transfer Today Myriad Choices Sue U. Universities and Patent Reform Private Rights, Public Goods
Chapter 5 Copyright on Campus Designs on Your Design Copyright Ownership and Use in Higher Education Company in the Classroom Digital Dilemmas Private Rights, Public Goods
Chapter 6 In Pursuit of Brand: Names, Domain Names, Images, Slogans, and Secrets A Bear of a Brand The Power of Brand New Names, New Meaning Expanding Domains EDUCAUSE and the.EDU College and University Battles for Cyberspace Higher Education's Online Brand and the Public Good Made in Their Image Insert Catchy New Slogan Here Keeping Secrets Private Rights, Public Goods
Chapter 7 Private Rights in the Public Interest: A Path Forward Stopping the Accretion: Bringing Sanity Back to College and University Trademarks Patent Law Made University Friendly From Claiming Copyright to Claiming Commons Pulling Back from Brand Implementing Intellectual Property Change on Campus Private Rights in Service of the Public Good
Appendix
Notes
Index
""One of the benefits of Rooksby's book is that it is written with the nonspecialist in mind. In fact, he has made the book accessible to those who are in the driver's seat at institutions of higher education' the administrators, trustees, and student affairs professionals.""
