Several faculty members have asked the UT-AAUP about faculty intellectual property rights to course materials developed by them without support from the University. Faculty have recently reported that their course materials have been given without their knowledge or permission to graduate students and others assigned to teach a faculty’s course.
Under current copyright law and under all three UT-AAUP CBAs, a faculty owns the intellectual property rights to his/her course materials including syllabi, lecture materials, DL courses, and exams. This is stated in all three CBAs. For example, see Article 17.2 of the T/TT CBA. This has been recognized in the CBAs for years by the UT Administration as “…the custom established in institutions of higher education…”. It has not been impacted by SB-1 or other madness by the Ohio legislature.
Under copyright law, faculty own the copyright to course materials once the materials are created upon affixing an original expression to a tangible medium- such as creating course slides or making a recording. Technically, a copyright notice is not required. One owns a common-law copyright to created materials whether there is a notice or not. Nonetheless with the changing environment on campus, it may be best practice to put the Administration and others on notice that the faculty has created and owns the work. One may elect to put a copyright notice on the cover page of materials online or distributed in class that reads for example “All Intellectual Property Rights Reserved, Copyright January 2026, John Doe, Toledo, Ohio. ” Similarly, one owns a copyright upon such affixing whether registered with the Copyright Office or not. However, registration with the Copyright Office is required before a lawsuit can be filed for copyright infringement.
As a practical matter, copyright litigation for infringement is complex, costly, and not a viable option to protect faculty course materials, but there is a viable option under the CBAs. Faculty should contact the UT-AAUP and we will first put the Administration on notice that faculty intellectual property rights under the CBAs are being infringed. It is believed such notice will suffice at the appropriate administrative level. If not, the UT-AAUP will file a grievance and seek arbitration under the CBAs.
It is believed that most faculty or other employees on campus are ethical and would not intentionally pirate another’s work. However, with the Administration being able to replace faculty with graduate students, part-time faculty, or others as stated by UT Interim Legal Counsel Schaller in the SB-1 Retrenchment Policy, it is a simple step for someone to take a faculty’s course materials for use by a graduate student or others assigned to teach a course. The Administration has previously tried to replace faculty with graduate students. A few years ago, a UT Senior Lecturer with a PhD from Cal Berkeley was terminated three weeks before the start of Fall classes for alleged lack of work and was replaced in her ten courses with six graduate students. This was subsequently overturned by the UT-AAUP in arbitration. The Arbitrator held for the UT-AAUP and ordered the UT Administration to reinstate the faculty with back pay. As noted above, the new SB-1 Retrenchment Policy now allows the Administration to terminate and replace faculty with anyone including graduate students. However, course materials owned by the faculty cannot be used without the faculty’s permission.
Intellectual property rights also extend to research data. Some years ago an administrator took data without permission from a faculty’s lab notebooks and submitted it in research proposals to the NIH and NSF. These were submitted solely under the administrator’s name without the knowledge or permission of the faculty. More recently another administrator took a junior faculty’s project research file and sent a copy to an OSU faculty member competing for grants in the same field as the UT faculty member. Faculty intellectual property rights were infringed in both of these cases. Unfortunately, in both cases, the UT Administration turned a blind eye as it often does with administrative trespasses. Faculty should not remain passive and waive their intellectual property rights. The CBAs provide for the protection of faculty intellectual property rights. Contact the UT-AAUP.
A faculty member may choose to permit his/her course materials, data, or other work to be used under a limited license with the understanding that the faculty is not waiving intellectual property rights to the work. This can be stated in an email to the Provost with a copy to the dean, chair, and user. It is not good practice for the faculty to do nothing because this might be construed as a waiver of the faculty’s intellectual property rights. Faculty must stand up for their intellectual property rights to course materials, data, and other works. The CBA protects faculty intellectual property rights. Contact the UT-AAUP.
If you have any questions concerning this newsletter and your IP rights to course materials or other works, please contact the UT-AAUP at staff.utaaup@gmail.com
UT-AAUP Executive Board