INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUES IN E-LEARNING

The growth in the distance education market is leading to the commodification of education. Education is nowadays available beyond school, college and university, on CD-ROM or online.1 Private sector partners in joint ventures with traditional universities are entering the distance education/e-learning market and are competing with traditional universities. Several types of intellectual property rights are bundled in distance learning courses. Written texts or drawings attract copyright; special technology or business methods for the course may attract patent protection. Finally, the ultimate packaging and branding of a distance/e-learning course is an essential factor on which the effective marketing of the course depends. Traditionally, universities developed intellectual property policies that, by and large, dealt with inventions. The legal challenges of apportioning copyright in distance-learning materials and of managing trademarks and brands effectively are just beginning to be appreciated.These issues are discussed below. E-LEARNING