Policy 7060 Implementation Procedures - Intellectual Property and Royalties

Employees may produce materials and/or intellectual property outside of their work duty day, apart from their employment with the Howard County Public School System (HCPSS), using their own resources, and therefore have the ability to exercise total proprietary rights, including royalty rights, regarding the materials and/or other forms of intellectual property.

Employees will seek a meeting for guidance from the Superintendent/designee when developing materials and/or other forms of intellectual property that may be related to their employment. The meeting should occur regardless of whether the materials and/or other forms of intellectual property will be developed outside or during the work duty day or will use some or no HCPSS resources.

The Board retains the rights to all materials and/or other forms of intellectual property, produced by HCPSS employees during their work duty day, or as part of their employment, or with the use of HCPSS resources. In this situation, the Board reserves the right to copyright or patent these materials and/or other forms of intellectual property in its name and to otherwise exercise proprietary rights, including royalty rights, regarding these materials and/or other forms of intellectual property.

Employees who obtain approval to develop materials and/or other forms of intellectual property that does involve full or partial use of HCPSS resources and/or partial use of the work duty day will seek to have the respective rights of ownership between the employee and the Board addressed in a written agreement. If there is no such agreement, the rights of ownership shall belong to the Board.

It is the responsibility of the employee who received royalties on the sale of materials and/or other forms of intellectual property to HCPSS to consult annually with the Purchasing Office to determine if the materials and/or other forms of intellectual property purchases may have exceeded the $25,000 threshold.

An employee who receives royalties on the sale of materials and/or other forms of intellectual property to the HCPSS in excess of $25,000 gross sales annually, or who receives a pro rata share of payments of account for materials and/or other forms of intellectual property purchased by the HCPSS in excess of $25,000 gross sales annually, must report such sales in an annual report using the Royalties Reporting Form to the Office of the General Counsel and the Purchasing Office, submitted in July of each year. This annual report must contain the following:

An HCPSS employee who prefers not to sell his or her materials and/or other forms of intellectual property to the HCPSS may petition the Superintendent in written request using the Royalties Reporting Form listing all such materials and/or other forms of intellectual property. This request will be honored.

The Office of the General Counsel will maintain a file of the reports of employees on royalties, payments of account, and charitable donations, and will make this file available to the Board of Education on request.

Should employees request that their materials and/or other forms of intellectual property not be purchased by the HCPSS, the Office of the General Counsel will provide the Royalties Reporting Form to notify the Purchasing Office.

The Superintendent/designee will notify employees annually of the expectations included in Policy 7060 and these implementation procedures.