Assignment 1 - Who Owns the Copyright to Your Work?

Question 1

Provide a concrete example of a product or creation whose copyright, patent, or other IP rights would not
necessarily be owned by you, even if you made it outside of work (e.g. at home at night). Provide enough
details so that you can refer back to this example as you're answering the next set of questions below.

Lets say I write an app that allows people to compare prices between Uber, Lyft, and other ride-sharing services.
If I wrote this app on the laptop that my employer (Yahoo Inc.) provided me for the course of employment, the
rights of the app arent necessarily owned by me. Since I used my companys resources, even though I worked on
the app on my own time, the company may own some (or all) the rights.

Explain what bearing each of the following would have on whether you or your Employer would have IP
rights on this product or creation:

The Canadian Copyright Act 13(3).

Your current employment contract, or the Partial Employment Contract (accessible via the
Assignment 1 page in LEARN).

Your job description or the nature of your work for your Employer. If you are not currently
employed, assume that youre employed at a company to which your product is related.

More generally, the current business interests of your Employer. If you are not currently employed,
assume that you work for a company and the product you create falls within the realm of business
interests of that company.

Your response to this question should be between 200 300 words.

Canadian Copyright Act: None, because I work in the US.

Partial Employment Contract: My employer would own all rights according to Assignment of Creations.

Job description: Since I am a data analyst intern for Yahoos mail teams internal feature which has nothing to do
with ride-sharing, job description would have no impact.

Business Interests: The business interests of my employer are directly in line with ride-sharing services.
Depending on what API and/or products I use, I may be going against the companys business strategy. If thats
the case my employer would exercise the right it owns to the fullest.
Insert answer here

Question 2

Answer question 2 based on University of Waterloo Policy 73 on Intellectual Policy Rights. Pay special
attention to sections 3 and 6; the answers to this question are in both of these sections.

Using the table in the template, provide a yes or no answer to each scenario and copy, paste, and cite the
blurb and specific section from Policy 73 that explains the scenario.

If you originate a new creation as part of a required deliverable in a course (e.g., an artwork, a literary
creation, a report, a video, a software application, etc.), does the University have the right to use your
creation to support the teaching of future courses (e.g., to show as exemplars of past student projects)?

For work that the university does have the right to use, can they use it

1. without your knowledge?

2. without your consent?

3. without attributing the work to you?

4. without
Complete providing you with any royalties (also known as remuneration or compensation)?
the table.

Question Yes/No Statement from Policy 73 that Justifies Your Response

does the university have
the right to use your
creation to support the
teaching of future course?
Owners of IP rights in scholarly works created in the course of teaching
and research activities grant the University a non-exclusive, free,
Yes
irrevocable license to copy and/or use such works in other teaching and
research activities

...without your knowledge?

yes

without your consent? No

...without attributing the
No
work to you?
without providing you
yes
with any royalties?