INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY POLICY
The Ateneo de Zamboanga University commits itself in its Mission towards charting global paths by ensuring that its “instruction, research, and innovations resonate beyond our shores, meeting the evolving needs of society and building a sustainable future for all” (ADZUSTRATPLAN 2024-2029). It recognizes the value of its members and their contribution to nation-building and global wellbeing and advocates for the protection of their ideas and efforts towards social development.
As an academic institution, the University supports the generation of new and relevant ideas through research from its faculty, staff, and students. To realize this, it endeavors to be a space where ideas and intellectual creations can flourish and be shared.
The University further believes that ideas and intellectual creations can lead to the creation of wealth which must be equitably distributed. By doing so, not only does it achieve its commitment towards social development, but also care for the productive members of its community.
UNIVERSITY POLICIES AND GUIDELINES
For more inquiries, or visit us in the URO office!
- University Research Office - ADZU
- 991-0871 local 1200
- uro@adzu.edu.ph
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES
ARTICLE I. COPYRIGHTS
Section 1. A copyright is the legal protection and economic right extended to the creators of literary and artistic works in physical or digital forms. It covers, but is not limited to the following works:
a. Books, pamphlets, articles, manuals, modules, e-books, audio books, comics, novels, and other writings
b. Periodicals, newspapers, journals, magazines, and e-zines
c. Lectures, sermons, paraliturgy, addresses, speeches, and dissertations prepared for oral delivery
d. Letters, circulars, encyclicals, email, and other electronic messages
e. Dramatic or dramatico-musical compositions, plays, operas, choreographic works, pantomimes, magic routines, and other novelty acts
f. Musical compositions, with or without lyrics
g. Works of drawing, painting, architecture, sculpture, engraving, lithography and other works of art
h. Ornamental designs or models for articles of manufacture, industrial objects, and other works of applied art
i. Illustrations, maps, plans, sketches, charts, and three-dimensional works relative to geography, topography, architecture, or science
j. Drawings or plastic works of a scientific or technical character
k. Photographic works, including works produced by a process analogous to photography
l. Audiovisual works, cinematographic works, and works produced by a process analogous to cinematography or any process for making audio-visual recordings
m. Pictorial illustrations and advertisements
n. Computer programs, software, games, applications, and codes
o. Other literary, scholarly, scientific and artistic works, including reports, studies, research, theses, thesis films, capstones, and other academic papers,
examinations, online courses, presentations, syllabi
p. Sound recordings
q. Broadcast recordings
Section 2. The University shall have rights to use, authorize or prevent the following acts:
a. Reproduction of the work or a substantial portion of the work in various forms
b. Dramatization, translation, adaptation, abridgment, arrangement or other transformation of the work
c. Public distribution of the original and each copy of the work by sale or other forms of transfer of ownership
d. Rental of the original or a copy of an audiovisual or cinematographic work, a work embodied in a sound recording, a computer program, a compilation of data and other materials, or a musical work in graphic form, irrespective of the ownership of the original or the copy which is the subject of the rental
e. Public performance, as in a play or musical work
f. Recording of the work, such as, in the form of devices that can store a digital copy
g. Broadcasting of the work by radio, cable, satellite, or other multimedia channels
h. Posting of the work in whole or in part in any social media platform
Section 3. Derivative works are also protected as new works provided that they do not affect the existing copyright of the original work from which they were derived. Derivative works include but are not limited to dramatizations, translations, adaptations, abridgments, arrangements and other alterations of literary, scholarly, or artistic works, and compilations of data and other materials which are original by reason of the selection, coordination or arrangement of their contents.
Section 4. The University is obligated to credit the moral rights of an IP to faculty, staff, student or professional creators which includes acknowledging them in the publication of University-owned IPs.
Section 5. Upon graduation, student creators may assign ownership of an IP to the University, subject to terms agreed upon between the student creators and the ITSO.
ARTICLE II. TRADEMARKS AND SERVICE MARKS
Section 1. A trademark or service mark is any visible sign capable of distinguishing the goods or services of an individual, enterprise, or other legal entity from other products or services.
Section 2. A trademark or service mark may include a name, word, phrase, logo, symbol, design, image, or a combination of these elements.
Section 3. The University has the right to register, use, distribute, and commercialize University-owned and can commence legal proceedings for trademark infringement to prevent unauthorized use of a trademark or service mark.
ARTICLE III. PATENTS
Section 1. A patent is a grant given by the government to inventors/applicants in return for disclosing an invention. It is a legal right to exclusively exploit the invention for the life of the patent. The right gives the inventor the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling the product of his/her invention during the life of the patent.
Section 2. Patentable inventions are any technical solutions to a problem in any field of human activity which is new, inventive, and useful. They include (a) a useful machine, device, or article of manufacture, (b) a product or composition, (c) a microorganism or combination of microorganisms, (f) method or process of use or manufacture, and (g) non-biological and microbiological process.
Section 3. An invention deemed patentable must be (a) novel, (b) involves an inventive step, and (c) is industrially applicable.
Section 4. Unless the University, thru the Innovation and Technology Support Office (ITSO), has issued a waiver of University’s rights, the personnel shall agree that there shall be no publicity or disclosure concerning the invention until patent applications have been filed. Once an invention is determined as potentially patentable, all publicity, public reports, interviews, news releases, speeches, public disclosure or public demonstrations of the invention after the filing of the application shall have prior clearance from the ITSO.
ARTICLE IV. INDUSTRIAL DESIGNS
Section 1. An industrial design refers to the ornamental aspect of an article and may consist of three-dimensional features such as the shape of the article, or two dimensional features such as its patterns, lines, or colors. This also includes a combination of applied art and applied science, whereby the aesthetics, ergonomics, and usability of a product may be improved for marketability and production.
Section 2. The University shall have the exclusive right against unauthorized copying or imitating of University-owned industrial designs by third parties.
ARTICLE V. UTILITY MODELS
Section 1. A utility model is any technical solution to a problem in any field of human activity which is new and industrially applicable. It is a protection option, which is designed to protect innovations that are not sufficiently inventive to meet the inventive threshold required for standard patent application. It may be any useful machine, implement, tools, products, composition, process, improvement or part of the same, that is of practical utility, novelty and industrial applicability.
Section 2. The University shall have the right to prevent others from commercially using University-owned utility models, provided that the UM is new based on the Registrability Report.
ARTICLE VI. LAYOUT-DESIGNS (TOPOGRAPHIES) OF INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
Section 1. Layout-designs of integrated circuits are a three-dimensional arrangement of elements forming an integrated circuit intended for manufacturing. This arrangement or ordering of elements follows from the electronic function that the integrated circuit is to perform.
Section 2. The layout must pass a series of checks in a process known as physical verification. The appropriate checks in this verification process shall be design rule checking (DRC), layout versus schematic (LVS), parasitic extraction, antenna rule checking, and electrical rule checking (ERC).
Section 3. The University shall have ownership rights over industrial designs registered to the University, but the creators shall enjoy moral rights over the works.
ARTICLE VII. OTHER RELATED INTELLECTUAL CREATIONS
Section 1. All other related intellectual creations, not included in the foregoing articles, may be covered by this policy. The Innovation and Technology Support Office (ITSO) shall identify such intellectual creations or products.
Section 2. The University has ownership rights over other related IPs, but creators must always be credited for the creation of the works.
