Can I use university provided laptop for working on my own startup?
I was given a laptop from the University where I am currently working towards my PhD. My professor approved a laptop for me from his available funds. The co-ordinator of the lab ordered it from Apples's website and it was first vetted and secured by the IT staff of the department. I am currently in my 3rd year and I came up with a product idea, unrelated to my dissertation. I am working on the idea using my university laptop, will that be an issue in the future, especially if I start full-time on my product (in case it works out).
28 comments
Beware that, depending on country and indeed specific university, some will attempt to claim ownership of IPR you develop as a student while studying for a PhD.
This isn't across the board, and different institutions have completely different approaches, but certainly in some countries there may be terms contained in PhD funding project. In some countries, a PhD studentship is treated formally as a fixed term employment with contract. In others it isn't. It's worth checking if they have any claim to ideas you create while working on your PhD, as you might want to be very careful to stop having ideas for a while if that was the case...
That the topic is unrelated to your dissertation may not be relevant if there is such a clause, but you should probably check this out, in addition to considering the "acceptable IT use" agreement or whatever your institution has in place, to see if they disallow use for personal business.
This isn't across the board, and different institutions have completely different approaches, but certainly in some countries there may be terms contained in PhD funding project. In some countries, a PhD studentship is treated formally as a fixed term employment with contract. In others it isn't. It's worth checking if they have any claim to ideas you create while working on your PhD, as you might want to be very careful to stop having ideas for a while if that was the case...
That the topic is unrelated to your dissertation may not be relevant if there is such a clause, but you should probably check this out, in addition to considering the "acceptable IT use" agreement or whatever your institution has in place, to see if they disallow use for personal business.
If you haven't signed such an agreement yet, they can withhold your diploma until you do.
Definitely make sure you understand your university's policy toward student work, companies, and inventions, and how rights are divided if at all between university, students, and faculty.
Using university resources would likely give them an even stronger claim of ownership. They could even sue you later.
Definitely make sure you understand your university's policy toward student work, companies, and inventions, and how rights are divided if at all between university, students, and faculty.
Using university resources would likely give them an even stronger claim of ownership. They could even sue you later.
University IP rules are usually quite strict. If your company has anything to do with your research they'll come knocking for royalties. You should also check at what level you're allowed to do outside work, in some places grad students aren't allowed to consult for example.
While I was a postdoc I consulted for the company I used to work for sometimes. I agreed it with the University IP office and they were happy under the proviso that no institutional resources were used and it didn't affect my work any more than I declared it would.
So technically are you allowed to? The short answer is probably not with a provided machine, but you could check with your university IP people - they exist. On the other hand lots of universities run entrepreneur programs for grad students so it would be hard to see how they'd complain if you used a university supplied machine for that. They might expect a cut if you do though. In theory most universities have all sorts or rules about releasing open source software too, but I don't know anyone who's ever really followed those.
I really doubt the IT department secured and vetted a Mac. Most likely they inventoried it and gave it a sticker. If in doubt install Little Snitch and see if it phones home, but unless you're using the institution VPN I doubt they can track anything. Unlike Windows where you may have to use an institutional sign in, I think it would be obvious if such a system was on your laptop.
If you drop out of school to pursue it then they're going to ask for the laptop back at least.
The practical answer is I doubt they would know, check or even consider pursuing anything unless you really made bank. And at that point you can afford a legal team.
While I was a postdoc I consulted for the company I used to work for sometimes. I agreed it with the University IP office and they were happy under the proviso that no institutional resources were used and it didn't affect my work any more than I declared it would.
So technically are you allowed to? The short answer is probably not with a provided machine, but you could check with your university IP people - they exist. On the other hand lots of universities run entrepreneur programs for grad students so it would be hard to see how they'd complain if you used a university supplied machine for that. They might expect a cut if you do though. In theory most universities have all sorts or rules about releasing open source software too, but I don't know anyone who's ever really followed those.
I really doubt the IT department secured and vetted a Mac. Most likely they inventoried it and gave it a sticker. If in doubt install Little Snitch and see if it phones home, but unless you're using the institution VPN I doubt they can track anything. Unlike Windows where you may have to use an institutional sign in, I think it would be obvious if such a system was on your laptop.
If you drop out of school to pursue it then they're going to ask for the laptop back at least.
The practical answer is I doubt they would know, check or even consider pursuing anything unless you really made bank. And at that point you can afford a legal team.
It doesn't sound like a good idea.
Who owns the laptop? Since you didn't pay for it, and it has been "secured" by someone else, you might find that they could take it back or wipe it remotely at any time.
Why not obtain your own dedicated hardware for your project?
Who owns the laptop? Since you didn't pay for it, and it has been "secured" by someone else, you might find that they could take it back or wipe it remotely at any time.
Why not obtain your own dedicated hardware for your project?
Use macOS Guest Mode, and do your work in the cloud, within the (Safari) browser. There are no files stored locally, and the browser history is cleared at the end of the session.
Your university will have an intellectual property policy - the one I worked at claimed 50% of your IP if it was developed using university equipment.
Buy your own laptop.
Buy your own laptop.
On paper my university have claim anything on it property (for example: you where programming using bench near building...). But in practice I would say depends, can you wipe your laptop (in my universality, you need request os)? If no, i do not touch anything outside his designated purpose, because otherwise everything is visible what you doing. Alternative, investigate from which budget bucket came - if it money from government for education purposes (there are multiple fund buckets), rules maybe can be more lax and etc.
From IP side, it much more complex. In my university there are numerous start-ups which got IP waivers - you can ask organization IP lawyer about your problem - but i bet his/her answer will be something along lines: need faculty head approval or something like that (obvious, decision is influenced by how much worth they see). But even with waivers and if startup is lucky enough there is chance that somebody will be 'bright' enough to try sue you on that waiver even it lost cause from beginning.
From IP side, it much more complex. In my university there are numerous start-ups which got IP waivers - you can ask organization IP lawyer about your problem - but i bet his/her answer will be something along lines: need faculty head approval or something like that (obvious, decision is influenced by how much worth they see). But even with waivers and if startup is lucky enough there is chance that somebody will be 'bright' enough to try sue you on that waiver even it lost cause from beginning.
Depends on how ethical you want to be, and on any agreements you signed. Based on experience with a university professor, and a small company with a potentially profitable idea, it can complicate taking the product to market. I'd recommend finding some alternative compute engine (cf craigslist), transferring your work to it, and disavowing anything you did on the university laptop.
It depends!
In some cases, use of university equipment (the laptop) will make them want to come looking for money later. The use of the laptop might not even matter, with some employers the contract might permit them IP ownership of something you create even if it's entirely on your own time and entirely without employer resources.
I'd suggest you see if you can take your contract of employment, in particular any bit about an IP assignment, to a lawyer for advice. If your university has a student's union, they might have some lawyers that can give you free (or cheap) advice. You could also just ask the university directly, but that has the risk of causing more trouble than it's worth.
In some cases, use of university equipment (the laptop) will make them want to come looking for money later. The use of the laptop might not even matter, with some employers the contract might permit them IP ownership of something you create even if it's entirely on your own time and entirely without employer resources.
I'd suggest you see if you can take your contract of employment, in particular any bit about an IP assignment, to a lawyer for advice. If your university has a student's union, they might have some lawyers that can give you free (or cheap) advice. You could also just ask the university directly, but that has the risk of causing more trouble than it's worth.
Did you sign any contract with the university regarding using their resources for side work unrelated to your PhD?
If you didn't I would not worry too much about it.
To get in trouble you would have to execute your idea and turn it into a business that is worth going to court or arbitration for (with very little chances of winning).
Chances of that happening are so slim that you should worry about many other things first.
For piece of mind you can host a virtual machine and work there.
Keep in mind that usually if IT wants they can monitor every keystroke on your laptop, so there's really no privacy when working on a computer provided and managed by others.
If you didn't I would not worry too much about it.
To get in trouble you would have to execute your idea and turn it into a business that is worth going to court or arbitration for (with very little chances of winning).
Chances of that happening are so slim that you should worry about many other things first.
For piece of mind you can host a virtual machine and work there.
Keep in mind that usually if IT wants they can monitor every keystroke on your laptop, so there's really no privacy when working on a computer provided and managed by others.
Typically, the work you do on university equipment belongs to the university. However, the work you do as a university student also belongs to the university.
Google Larry page still has his paper for the page rank algorithm patented and owned by Stanford. The patent expired now.
So your great work is owned by the university. The only reason google is not owned by the university is because it was formed after the founders left. The product they made while they were in the university was called backrub.
Google Larry page still has his paper for the page rank algorithm patented and owned by Stanford. The patent expired now.
So your great work is owned by the university. The only reason google is not owned by the university is because it was formed after the founders left. The product they made while they were in the university was called backrub.
You may or may not be fine legally (other commenters cover this part) but why play it so loose? If you can afford your own computer there are many reasons to prefer separating your personas somewhat. And if not, at least you can get some poor-mans redundancy/backup benefits.
You don't mention it but I got to ask: If tomorrow the SSD in the university laptop fries and all data is lost, how long time until you are up to speed again?
You don't mention it but I got to ask: If tomorrow the SSD in the university laptop fries and all data is lost, how long time until you are up to speed again?
If you use university resources, they almost certainly will have a claim to the IP. Best to just buy a personal laptop, and use only personal resources.
Universities are governed by masses of by-laws. Even if you read, understand and abide by all of them, you cannot confidently protect yourself against various accusations, e.g. plagiarism, academic misconduct, etc. You could even jeopardize your PhD.
The only reasonably "safe" approach is to buy your own PC, only work on your idea off campus and not publish, publicize or otherwise promote your work until after you graduate with your PhD. Keep a diary of your actual work, etc to be able to demonstrate that you did not utilize any of the universities resources for your project and that the essential IP is unrelated to your PhD research work.
I earned my PhD a few years ago and along the way I saw some of my colleagues get tripped up by the most specious academic rules. Cutting corners is not worth it.
The only reasonably "safe" approach is to buy your own PC, only work on your idea off campus and not publish, publicize or otherwise promote your work until after you graduate with your PhD. Keep a diary of your actual work, etc to be able to demonstrate that you did not utilize any of the universities resources for your project and that the essential IP is unrelated to your PhD research work.
I earned my PhD a few years ago and along the way I saw some of my colleagues get tripped up by the most specious academic rules. Cutting corners is not worth it.
Unless you can get any guarantee in writing saying you're ok to use the university's property to build your startup without them making a claim on it, your safest bet is to probably find some way to get the best cheap laptop you can. If that's not sufficient for running your stuff locally, you can pay for some online hosting to do your work there.
Ask your department HR. I don't think any technological solution (mentioned by other comments) is the right play. Source: am a grad student
Asking is risky. You can't be confident that what you are told is fully in accordance with the by-laws of your university. The general attitude in universities is that you as a researcher should read and understand everything that pertains to your activities. Being a squeaky wheel is like having a target painted on your back.
OP I don't have an answer for you, sorry.
As a discussion point, is there any industry where if provided tools, ownership of anything those tools produce become owned (either partially or fully) by the legal owners of those tools? Would the same rules apply to paintbrushes or a musical instrument?
Assuming there's not, it just seems odd that it would be the case for a laptop and somehow that's okay.
As a discussion point, is there any industry where if provided tools, ownership of anything those tools produce become owned (either partially or fully) by the legal owners of those tools? Would the same rules apply to paintbrushes or a musical instrument?
Assuming there's not, it just seems odd that it would be the case for a laptop and somehow that's okay.
I know one person who accepted a small amount of fund from a university to help fund a project, most of it was funded out of pocket. When it was completed they tried to claim the IP. It was too expensive to fight in court. So he destroyed the project. Be wary
Legally you should know it when you receive it from your university.
Technically they know everything. There are hardware level enrollments supported by both macOS and Windows, agent software will be installed automatically and all files and browsers history are monitored.
Technically they know everything. There are hardware level enrollments supported by both macOS and Windows, agent software will be installed automatically and all files and browsers history are monitored.
I think it is better having a separate machine for personal and professional purposes. Even if you have a plan on working in the cloud and not locally on the machine, you could always slip up.
This is to make it easier for both you and the university.
This is to make it easier for both you and the university.
If Filevault is turned on, and they can't spy on your work, go for it! Just back everything up, because they can lock you out at any moment, but they shouldn't have access to your data. They would just wipe it when you return it.
Thanks everyone for your valuable inputs, I will take measures to sort this out :)
For work, when I’m working for another company, I always request a platform that doesn’t match anything I have at home. Keeps things more separate.
Or you can look into Tails: https://tails.boum.org
or you can dual boot using to a different installation of macOS or Linux using an external hard drive. I definitely do not advocate using the same installation provided by the university since it will be monitored.
Check your contract. Nobody can answer this for you
I THINK you should check with a university team.