COPYRIGHT AND ROYALTIES INFORMATION

The following information is provided regarding copyright matters and the appropriate disposition of royalties received from publishers. Please contact the Office of the General Counsel if you have any questions or comments.
 
I. COPYRIGHT
 
Upon submission and acceptance of a publication, publishers will undoubtedly ask you to assign the publication's copyright to them. If the publication was done as part of your duties at USUHS, it presumptively is a "Work of the U.S. Government," and no copyright protection is available under the terms of Title 17 United States Code section 105. Whether a work was prepared as part of an faculty member's official duties involves some of the following considerations:
 
Whether the preparation of the work was within the faculty member's position description; or Whether the preparation of the work was properly assigned by the faculty member's supervisor; or Whether the faculty member was in a position to self- assign the official duty of preparing the work, and it was so self-assigned.
 
Under the copyright law it is also true that no USUHS person can be "prevented from securing copyright in a work written at that person's own volition and outside his or her own duties, even though the subject matter involves the Government work or professional field of the official or employee," quoting the Notes of the Committee on the Judiciary, House Report No. 94-1476. Where is it unclear whether a work falls within a faculty member's official duties, but there has been a Government contribution in connection with the preparation of the work, e.g., use of Government time, facilities, equipment, materials, funds, or the services of other Government employees on official duties, and the subject matter of the work directly relates to or was of a type involved in the employee's field of governmental employment, then the work generally is presumed to be a "Government Work" and not subject to copyright. With regard to "Government Works" prepared by you, it is clear that publishers requesting an assignment of copyright in your USUHS publication have not considered your Federal status and the Title 17 prohibition denying copyright to works done by Government employees. Based upon past experience, it is equally clear that such publishers will understand your position if you advise you are unable to assign copyright because of your Federal status. A simple statement to the effect that the work was produced in the course of your duties at USUHS and no copyright is consequently available should be sufficient to meet the publisher's needs. If you receive a contract which asks you to assign copyright, or if the publisher wants a particular statement confirming your status, our office can advise on such copyright questions at the same time we are reviewing the publishing contract prior to signature.
 
II. ROYALTIES
 
When a faculty member has prepared teaching materials which have been published, it seems only appropriate to utilize them in one's own teaching. A primary question is what disposition to make of any royalties which may result from the purchase of such texts by USUHS, and secondarily, what disposition to make of royalties from the sale of such publications to other sources:
 
If a publication was done "on the clock," i.e., as part of a faculty member's USUHS duties, any and all royalty payments received from such publications must be turned over to Financial Management for deposit in the United States Treasury. In other words, if a textbook was written as part of a faculty member's USUHS employment, all royalties--whether from texts sold to USUHS or to any other institution--must be deposited in the Treasury. There are no other acceptable alternatives, e.g., it is not appropriate to request the publisher to reduce the cost of texts sold to USUHS by an amount equal to the royalty payment; or alternately, one cannot request that the amount of the royalty payment be deposited with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine. If a publication was done "off the clock," i.e., was prepared outside of the employee's federal employment, had no other Government support, and utilizes no proprietary information gained through one's USUHS position, then royalties may be retained by the faculty member for sales of the publication to non-federal institutions. However, all royalties received for publications purchased by USUHS must again be turned over to Financial Management for deposit in the Treasury. Again, there are no acceptable alternatives to such deposit.

Contacts

Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
4301 Jones Bridge Road
Bethesda, MD 20814