[game_edu] Student IP for coursework

[Mike Sellers]

At Indiana University, students (and faculty) in game design own their IP
(I'm pretty sure that's not the case across the board). Our capstone
students create LLCs as part of an introduction to the business side of
things. We have a corporate template that includes default rules (that the
LLC can change via a vote) for how to deal with people who roll off the
project, join late, etc. It also makes the students confront the reality of
differential percentage ownership based on their individual performance and
longevity on the project. We also have a license agreement in place with
each of these LLCs that allows us (the department) to use any of their tech
that's not central to their game in other games -- so if someone makes a
cool menuing system or something, other student teams can use it later on
too (that's been theoretical thus far, but I wanted to preserve the option).

We went through a long process with the university about this, mostly
because they were unfamiliar with this being something students would want
to do. I think most universities have set policies on IP ownership; you'd
be well advised to check with the legal counsel's office for clarification
and guidance. The last thing you want to have happen is for some student
team to have their game bought by another company, and only then does the
university rouse itself and say "not so fast..."

Mike


On Thu, Aug 24, 2017 at 9:38 AM, Ian Schreiber via game_edu <
game_edu at igda.org> wrote:

> Question for those of you who teach courses that involve the creation of
> games that may go on to be commercialized, submitted to festivals, or
> similar (e.g. capstone courses):
>
> What do you do, if anything, involving student ownership of IP? Do you
> have them sign a contract as part of the syllabus (and if so, what's in the
> contract and how did you put it together)? How do you handle cases where
> some of the student team might want to take the game forward and others
> would not? How do you deal with crediting and ownership in the case of
> students who are low performers, or who are late adds or late drops (or who
> contribute to the project peripherally even though they're not taking the
> course, e.g. a student whose roommate provides some art on their own time)?
> And... how much of this is covered by university or department policy, vs.
> how much is entirely up to you as the instructor?
>
> Just at my own institution it seems like there's no standard, every
> professor handles this differently, so I'm interested to hear what others
> have done in this space.
>
> - Ian
>
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