The document discusses intellectual property (IP) rights in scholarly publishing, detailing the importance of copyrights, patents, and Creative Commons (CC) licenses. It explains that IP is a legal concept granting exclusive rights to creators and innovators, while CC licenses allow broader sharing of creative works with specified conditions. Additionally, it highlights initiatives like Science Commons aimed at facilitating the sharing of scientific knowledge within the research community.

1. Intellectual Property
In Scholarly Publishing
Rights To

2. What is intellectual property?
It is a legal concept that refers to creations of the mind
for which exclusive rights are recognized

3. Under intellectual property law, owners are
granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of
intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and
artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and
words, phrases, symbols, and designs.

4. Innovators (including scientists and researchers)
Can protect their discoveries, patents, industrial
designs, confidential information, etc.
Creative artistes
Get copyrights on the musical, literary, dramatic
and artistic pieces they create
Let’s simplify this further
Business owners
Get exclusive rights to use their trademarks

5. Types of intellectual property rights
Copyrights
Patents
CC licenses

6. CC licenses
CC licenses are
• Standard form license agreements that can be
attached to a work so that it can be used under
certain circumstances without the need to
contact the author or negotiate terms of use
• Granted free of cost by Creative Commons (CC),
a non-profit organization headquartered in the
United States

7. 6 Types of CC licenses
Attribution (CC BY) Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA)
Attribution-NoDerivs
(CC BY-ND)
Attribution NonCommercial
(CC BY-NC)
Attribution-NonCommercial-
ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA)
Attribution-NonCommercial-
NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)

8. More about CC licenses
CC licenses are based on copyrights. They change “all rights reserved” to
“some rights reserved”.
All CC licenses are BY (attribution) licenses by default.
Basic criteria for getting a CC license are that the work should be
copyrightable and should be owned by the applicant.
CC licenses are particularly useful for people who want to share their
work as broadly as possible on the Internet.
CC licenses are irrevocable.
CC is a non-profit organization, so keeping track of any breaches in the
use of work under CC licenses is the responsibility of the license holder.

9. Science Commons
Science Commons was launched by Creative Commons in 2005 to enable
easier sharing of scientific knowledge with the entire scientific community.
People are free to use an article under
Science Commons in professional
activities, such as teaching,
conference presentations, lectures,
and in other scholarly works.
Science Commons licenses provide
sufficient rights to post a copy of the
published version of an article
online without a charge.
Many open access publishers such
as PLOS and BioMed Central use CC
licenses. Even Nature Publishing
Group uses these licenses for some
of its journals.
Science Commons projects try to
mark all available research data
online and streamline it for easier
use.

10. Copyright
It’s a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator
of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time.
• In most cases, a work does not have to be published to be
copyrighted
• A copyright protects the form of expression
• A copyright is usually territorial or holds good only within
the country of origin, unless protected by international
treaties

11. Patents
They provide
legal
protection for
an invention.
They give inventors
property rights that, in
exchange for public
disclosure of the
invention, prevent
anyone else from making,
using, or selling the
patented invention.
The procedure for
granting patents,
requirements placed on
the patentee, and the
extent of the exclusive
rights vary widely
between countries,
according to national
laws and international
agreements.
Patents are
not global or
universal;
they’re
territorial.

12. Summary
CC licenses Copyrights Patents
Applicable worldwide
Territorial, unless protected by
international treaties
Territorial, unless protected
by international treaties
Have to be applied for Need no application; automatic
Have to be applied for and
need renewal
Irrevocable
Applicable for a fixed period; can
be revoked
Fixed time duration; can be
revoked
Some rights reserved All rights reserved Varies

13. Sources
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons
• http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Frequently_Asked_Questions
• http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-12/15/what-does-
creative-commons-mean-for-science
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent
• http://creativecommons.org/
• http://sciencecommons.org/about/
• http://www.flaticon.com/

14. For more
tips and resources on
scientific writing or
publication, visit…

15. www.editage.com/insights
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