Under Section 11 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act the copyright in work produced by University employees in the course of their employment belongs to the employer (i.e., UEA) unless there is agreement to the contrary.
UEA's Intellectual Property Regulations and the Staff Intellectual Property Guide set out the University's position with regard to the copyright in any original work created in the course of your employment. The Guide and Regulations should be read in full by all staff whose work requires them to create works which may be protected by copyright.
Key points are summarised below:
Copyright protection starts as soon as a work is created.
The duration of your copyright depends of the type of work.
If you own the copyright in a work you have the exclusive right to:
Copyright enables the rights holder to prevent others from copying, adapting or reusing their work without permission.
The Intellectual Property Office has published guidance on ownership of copyright works.
It can be most effective to try to resolve the matter informally with the party you think has infringed your copyright. If they are a member of another academic institution, there should be a published Takedown Policy with steps for you to follow and obligations for the institution and individual concerned.
If you want to take enforcement more formally, the Intellectual Property Office has published guidance on Enforcing your copyright.
The copyright in commissioned works initially resides with the author / creator of that work, rather than the person(s) commissioning the work. This is not considered to be work done in the course of employment. The author / creator can of course assign or license the rights they have in their work. If you are commissioning work it is important that the agreement you have with the contractor gives you sufficient permission for all the uses you want to make of that work, e.g. on social media etc.
