Case Note

In a recent decision, Victoria University of Technology v Wilson & Ors, the Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia decided against two academic defendants in a case brought by their university employer over the ownership of intellectual property. The case turned on whether the academics invented the property within the scope of their employment, and is interesting due to the court’s finding that the comparatively recent commercialisation of Australian universities had reconstructed the nature of academic work. The court held that a full professor and a senior lecturer — a middle-level academic grade in Australian universities — had a fiduciary duty to account to their employer university for gains from business opportunities they learnt of in the course of their employment

Duty · Economics · Fiduciary · High Court · Intellectual property · Management · Political science · Project commissioning · Publishing · Scope (computer science · Sociology · Supreme court · Work (physics · Engineering · Law · Legal Education and Practice Innovations