(1) Except as otherwise provided in this section, the following information in which a public university or college holds an interest, or that is owned, prepared, used, or retained by, or in the possession of, a public university or college, is exempt from disclosure as a public record under the freedom of information act, Act No. 442 of the Public Acts of 1976, being section 15.231 to 15.246 of the Michigan Compiled Laws:
  (a) Intellectual property created by a person employed by or under contract to a public university or college for purposes that include research, education, and related activities, until a reasonable opportunity is provided for the information to be published in a timely manner in a forum intended to convey the information to the academic community.

Terms Used In Michigan Laws 390.1554

  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. Source: OCC
  • Intellectual property: means all original data, findings, or other products of the mind or intellect commonly associated with claims, interests, and rights that are protected under trade secret, patent, trademark, copyright, or unfair competition law. See Michigan Laws 390.1552
  • person: may extend and be applied to bodies politic and corporate, as well as to individuals. See Michigan Laws 8.3l
  • Public university or college: means a university, college, or community college established under section 5, 6, or 7 of article VIII of the state constitution of 1963. See Michigan Laws 390.1552
  • Record: means all or part of a writing, as that term is defined in section 2 of the freedom of information act, 1976 PA 442, MCL 15. See Michigan Laws 390.1552
  (b) Original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression created by a person employed by or under contract to a public university or college for purposes that include research, education, or related activities, until a reasonable opportunity is provided for the author to secure copyright registration, not to exceed 12 months from the date the work is first fixed in a tangible medium of expression.
  (c) Records regarding a process, a machine, an item of manufacture, or a composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement of a process, a machine, an item of manufacture, or a composition of matter, until a reasonable opportunity is provided for the inventor to secure patent protection, not to exceed 5 years from the date the records are first made.
  (d) Trade secrets or other proprietary information in which a public university or college holds an interest or that a public university or college owns that is determined by the public university or college to have potential commercial value, if a general description of the nature of the information and a description of the extent of the interest held by the public university or college in the information is made available to a person upon request.
  (2) To the extent that the information and its commercial value are capable of being adequately protected by copyright, patent, or trademark protection and are not encompassed by a pending, unissued patent application, subsection (1) does not apply to information regarding a product or process if the public university or college is selling or marketing the product or process to the general public.
  (3) Section 3(3) applies to information described in this section that is provided by a private external source.