Recommended Intellectual Property Policies from the Canadian Association of University Teachers

Founded in 1951, the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) is Canada's national voice for academic staff. Today, representing 68,000 teachers, librarians, researchers, general staff, and other academic professionals, it helps establish policies and principles throughout Canadian higher education. CAUT advances equity and human rights within the profession. It fights for fair working conditions, compensation, and benefits that foster quality teaching and innovative research. CAUT works for collegial institutional governance that is publicly accountable and gives the academic community its proper voice. Like the AAUP, CAUT strongly advocates for academic freedom and shared governance. Also like the AAUP, it conducts thorough investigations and issues detailed reports on university violations of its principles. CAUT’s executive director participates in meetings of the AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure.

As part of its commitment to assisting its members in their contract negotiations, CAUT issues concise memos listing key issues and offering recommended contract language. We include here their memos addressing intellectual property. We also include relevant IP language from a representative Canadian university collective bargaining agreement.

CAUT Advisory on Intellectual Property (.pdf)
CAUT Model Clause on Intellectual Property (.pdf)
Canadian Contract Clauses (.pdf)