Does the NIH proposal impact intellectual property rights?
No. NIH-funded research is currently copyrightable and will remain copyrightable under this plan. As before, copyright initially belongs to the author. If the author submits an article based on NIH-funded research to a journal that requests transfer of copyright, then the author is free to transfer copyright and the journal is free to acquire it. However, under terms of the grantee’s agreement with NIH, “NIH must be given a royalty-free, non-exclusive, and irrevocable license for the Federal Government to reproduce, publish and otherwise use the material.” The NIH proposal would simply exercise that right while in no way interfering with the right of the author to cede copyright to a publisher if he or she wishes to do so. The publisher (or author, if he or she retains copyright) will have all the usual rights as a copyright owner.
