Copyright and Patent

For information on copyright ownership for a thesis or dissertation, see Publication and Research < Intellectual Property.

For general information on copyright, see Publication and Research < U.S. Copyright.

ProQuest Copyright Registration Service
Students who publish their thesis or dissertation with ProQuest may choose to utilize ProQuest's copyrighting service. For a fee, ProQuest will act as the author's agent in applying for a copyright for the manuscript. The service includes preparing the application and submitting the required deposit copies and the registration fee to the United States Copyright Office at the Library of Congress. The office will send the copyright registration form directly to the author. For more information on this service provided by ProQuest, contact the Graduate Records Office.

Depending on their country of origin, students who are foreign nationals may be subject to certain restrictions when applying for a copyright in the United States. For more information, see Research and Publications < International Copyright.

Delay of Publication to Prevent Premature Disclosure of Potential Patents
The university accepts the obligation to protect potentially patentable material from premature public disclosure, in order to preserve entitlement to worldwide patent protection while the material is being evaluated for patentability. In order to fulfill its contractual obligations, it is occasionally necessary for the university to delay temporarily the publication of a thesis or dissertation that contains potentially patentable material.

1. Procedures
To delay the publication of a thesis or dissertation, the committee chair should initiate and sign a "Request to Withhold Graduate Thesis/Dissertation from Public Release Form," which must be endorsed by the graduate chair and submitted to the Graduate Records Office. Delaying the publication of a thesis or dissertation does not prevent a student from receiving his or her degree, provided that all other degree requirements have been fulfilled.

2. Withholding Period
A delay of publication will not exceed one year, except under extenuating circumstances. If during the withholding period it is determined that the material is not patentable, the Graduate Division will release the manuscript immediately following such determination. If it is determined that the material is patentable, the Graduate Division will release the manuscript as soon as notice is received that a patent application has been filed.

3. Avoiding Delay
To avoid delay of publication, the student and the committee chair are encouraged to make timely disclosure of inventions as they occur. Normally, any invention should be known before the manuscript is written. The time required to write and edit the manuscript is usually sufficient to permit the evaluation of patentable results. Every reasonable effort must be made to file a patent application as promptly as possible.

4. Objections to Delay
If for reasons of personal hardship (e.g., impairment of employment opportunities due to the inability to disclose research work to prospective employers), the student objects to delaying the publication of the manuscript, the Graduate Division will work with the student and the committee chair either to revise the manuscript so that it is not enabling, or to arrange to have prospective employers review the manuscript under a signed non-disclosure agreement.