Ownership of research records
Who owns research data? The US and UK rules, quoted
Updated
Before a lab licenses anything, three parties may have a claim on its records: the funder, the employer and whoever made the database. These are the rules, each in its own words.
Federal money: the recipient holds title, the agency keeps a licence
Under 2 CFR 200.315, title to intangible property acquired under a federal award vests on acquisition in the recipient or subrecipient. The same section reserves for the agency a royalty-free, nonexclusive and irrevocable right to reproduce, publish or otherwise use the work for federal purposes.
Source: 2 CFR 200.315
Inventions follow the Bayh-Dole clause in 37 CFR 401.14: where the contractor keeps title, the government has a paid-up licence, and the agency may require title to be conveyed if the contractor fails to disclose or elect title in time.
Source: 37 CFR 401.14
A federal contract is stricter. FAR 52.227-14 gives the government unlimited rights in data first produced in the performance of the contract, while the contractor may assert copyright in that data only as the clause allows.
Source: FAR 52.227-14
Employers, and what copyright does not reach
US copyright vests first in the author, but for a work made for hire the employer is treated as the author (17 USC 201). Copyright never extends to an idea, procedure, process or discovery (17 USC 102(b)), so the value a buyer sees in a result is often in the records and the database rather than in any copyright.
Source: 17 USC 201
In the UK an employee's invention made in the course of normal duties belongs to the employer (Patents Act 1977 s39), and an employer is first owner of copyright in work made in the course of employment (CDPA 1988 s11).
Source: Patents Act 1977, section 39
The rest of the law, the database right and UKRI's sharing expectation, is at who owns data from a research project.