Speaker - December 2008

Your self-published textbook
generates recurring sales revenue
from campus bookstores each
semester. A college instructor
begins moonlighting, and uses
your curriculum outside the
classroom for training and
consulting assignments, for
which he is paid a hefty fee.
Your intellectual property was
not intended to be used this way. How
would you handle this situation?

I don’t have any problem with what the instructor charges for the class, as long as students are purchasing my textbook. But if they’re not purchasing the text (unauthorized reproduction digitally or otherwise), I would contact the instructor through a lawyer and ask him/her to cease and desist using my materials for personal gain. Frankly, I think this happens a lot on college and university campuses, under an educational purposes umbrella.

—Bill Fenson, Dallas, Texas

First, I would trademark and copyright everything. Then, I’d ask the instructor to cease using my intellectual property. If he doesn’t comply, I’d get my legal counsel involved—as a last resort. If he is making a lot of money on my intellectual property, I would propose a license agreement. If someone is making money on your material, you should be compensated for it.

—Ron Karr, CSP, Westwood, N.J.

While my thoughts are from a legal perspective, they are not offered as legal advice, but as general principles of law. First, i’d encourage the self-published author to consult with a lawyer about the specific facts of her case. Then, i’d ask three questions:

1. What year was the book published?

2. Was the copyright notice symbol prominently placed in the book? While no longer mandatory, the presence of the copyright notice symbol (e.g., copyright 2008 John doe) sends the message that you claim ownership in the work. second, and more important, if the book was published before march 1, 1989, and did not have the notice symbol, it lost its protection and went into the public domain.

3. Was the book registered with the copyright office? While not required, there are many benefits to copyright registration, including, but not limited to, the right to sue an infringer. Without a registration, you can’t sue!

“Protecting” valuable intellectual property is the name of the game. it’s essential to make it as important as creating, marketing and selling product. Because if the work isn’t protected, there may be little you can do to stop an infringer.

i would communicate directly with the instructor and find out exactly what he is doing, his intentions, if he understands that this is my intellectual property, and get a sense if he was purposely and deceitfully using my material, or if he doesn’t understand it’s unethical. i would state my concerns, share our policies and make the rules clear to him; for example, what i expect to be paid, written permission requirements, etc. if he insists on continuing this practice, i would call my lawyer. —Karen Friedman, Blue Bell, Pa.