The next question I asked the respondents was whether the organization had officially registered their copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office or their trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Asking about the registration of intellectual property is insight into two things: that there is a desire to claim ownership and the ability to […]

As capstones to my reading, these two texts helped to frame some key concepts that would move my nonprofit intellectual property questions forward. I was out of my comfort zone with Lessig’s The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World and Landes and Posner’s The Economic Structure of Property Law. […]

A philosopher, a legal scholar, an economist, and a computer scientist walk into a bar… I don’t tell jokes because I can never remember the punchlines. Anyone who knows me well can attest. Academics in each of those disciplines edited a series of essays in one of the more unforgettable nonfiction books I’ve ever read. […]

How could I have worked for three organizations that made strategic use of their IP and no one researching the sector even mentions it? It seemed highly unlikely that I had happened to work at the only three nonprofits who were innovative enough to recognize their IP and they all happen to be in a […]

Nonprofits were asked if employee of the organization hold the rights to any of the intellectual property in use by the organization. Eighteen (18) respondents replied that no individuals hold rights to the organization’s IP. Though one respondent did not answer this question, all nineteen (19) respondents answered the follow-up question of whether there is […]