Yale, like most universities, is a marketplace for ideas. In the field of language study, Yale faculty members engage in innovative pedagogical pursuits making use of state-of-the-art technology support and expert staff assistance from the CLS. They develop high caliber multimedia instructional materials and produce original materials with templates developed by the CLS. This development of new materials gives rise to two concerns: protection of materials created by Yale faculty and the permissibility of using of materials created by third parties.

Intellectual property - an umbrella designation that identifies intangible rights in literary and technological works. For example, patents provide protection for inventors' rights in novel devices or compositions, processes or even designs of useful articles.
Copyright - the form of Intellectual Property that provides protection for works of a literary and artistic nature. Yale language faculty are likely to deal with copyrighted works, either in incorporating such works into instructional materials or in seeking copyight protection for the works they author.

Essential Reading

An Overview of Copyright Considerations for Faculty Developing Materials with CLS Support - The indispensable introduction every language teacher should read.

Policy on Ownership of Instructional Materials Created In the Course of CLS-Supported Projects

The CLS Copyright Handbook

Memo on Ownership of Materials Developed with CLS Support Prior to September 1, 2006

More Information

While the Copyright Handbook answers most basic questions about Copyright, the following sites analyze pertinent issues in greater depth and offer additional resources.

The Fair Use Network
The University of Texas Crash Course in Copyright
Indiana University's Copyright Management Center
A Principled Approach to Copyright Policymaking by Susan M. Kornfield, J.D. (PDF file)

The staff of the CLS would be happy to assist you with questions you might have about Intellectual Property and can facilitate meetings with Yale's Office of Cooperative Research and others as appropriate.

Contact your CLS faculty liaison for more information, or direct questions to Mark Knowles or Howard Barnaby at the CLS (Staff Contact Info).