The author of a work is exclusively entitled to exercise the exploitation rights, which, unlike moral rights, may be transferred to third parties (on an exclusive or non-exclusive basis). Therefore, the work of another author may only be exploited if the consent of the author and/or holder of rights has been obtained, or if one of the exceptions set out in the Intellectual Property Act applies. These rights are:

• Right of reproduction: copying of the work (photocopying, scanning, etc.)
• Right of distribution: distribution of physical copies of the work (loans, rentals, distribution of copies, etc.)
• Right of public communication: dissemination of works without distribution of physical copies (publication on websites or intranets, film screenings or presentations, broadcasting of musical works, etc.)
• Right to make derivative works: creation of derivative works (translations, children’s adaptations, etc.)

• UPC students hold the ownership and exploitation rights of the inventions they have developed within the framework of an academic activity.

• In the case of inventions made by UPC students with UPC staff, the ownership and exploitation rights of the inventions correspond to the UPC students and the University, in the proportion that corresponds to them according to the significant and original intellectual contribution of each of the inventors in their development.

• In both cases, the UPC has reserved a right of use for academic, teaching and research activities on inventions, although the inventor may revoke it at any time by submitting a written request to the UPC, in which reasonable grounds are given for revoking the right [Art. 4.1.1.].

• UPC students hold the authorship and ownership and exploitation rights of the works they have developed within the framework of an academic activity.

• In the case of works resulting from works developed by UPC students together with UPC staff, the authorship corresponds to both UPC students and UPC staff, and the ownership of exploitation rights corresponds to UPC students and the University, in the proportion that corresponds to them according to the significant and original intellectual contribution of each of the authors in their development.

• In both cases, the UPC has reserved a right of use for academic, teaching and research activities on the work, although the author can revoke it at any time by submitting a written request to the UPC, in which reasonable grounds are given for revoking the right [Art. 4.1.2].

• The students of the UPC and the university can agree on the assignment of the exploitation rights on the results of the students in favour of the UPC, so that the university is in charge of the tasks of protection and exploitation.

• In this case, the students of the UPC and the university will sign an assignment agreement, which will establish the compensation that corresponds to the students of the UPC [Art. 4.2].

• In the case of co-ownership between the students of the UPC and the University, both parties must sign a co-ownership agreement, in which the protection and exploitation of the results regime are established, as well as the rights and obligations corresponding to each party, taking into account their participation in the results [Art. 4.3].

• The development of a research project by members of the university community within the framework of its activity at the UPC, in collaboration or on behalf of third parties, regardless of the branch of knowledge to which it refers, requires the subscription of the corresponding R&D agreement, collaboration agreement or contract for the commissioning of scientific, technical or artistic work or technical support, as applicable, under the terms stipulated by internal UPC regulations [Art. 6.1].

• The regime of ownership of the rights over the results obtained in the framework of the execution of the corresponding agreement or contract, as well as the distribution of the exploitation rights that derive from them, must be foreseen in the agreement or contract [Art. 6.2].

• In carrying out these activities and negotiating the agreements or contracts, the rights that may correspond to the UPC under these regulations must be respected [Art. 6.3].

• If the student wants to create an invention derived from his work, he should communicate to the University his interest in its protection. This notification must be given before the thesis is publicly defended to ensure that its content is kept confidential by the author and anyone else involved (e,g. the examiners).

• Maintaining confidentiality is essential to apply for a patent for any future invention, A patent ensures the enjoyment of industrial property rights related to an invention by the beneficiary who registers it, to whom a series of exclusive rights of use are granted for a specified period [Cercaterm].

• The authors of the academic works who own the intellectual property are those who are entitled to reproduce, distribute or publicly communicate the works, make derivative works, and/or transfer exploitation rights to third parties. However, any act of exploitation must meet the following requirements:
   
  • The work does not infringe the intellectual property rights of any third party.
  • There is no agreement or contract, entered into with a third pary, whose terms preclude the act of exploitation. This requirement would not be met, for example, in the case of a bachelor's thesis that is subject to confidentiality provisions required by a company where work on the thesis was done. Such provisions are detailed in the corresponding agreement.

• The authorship of a doctoral thesis corresponds to the doctoral student. In accordance with Royal Decree 99/2011, of 28 January, which regulates official doctoral studies, doctoral theses, once they have passed, are published by the UPC in an open electronic format in an institutional repository, to which the author cannot object, except in the exceptional circumstances provided for in the applicable regulations.

• If doctoral theses give rise to a new result, the exploitation rights on this result correspond to the doctoral student, unless UPC staff have actively contributed to generating it, in which case the UPC has the right to participate in the exploitation rights of the result in the proportion that corresponds according to the participation of its staff in obtaining the result.

• If the doctoral student carries out these activities in the framework of an employment relationship with the UPC, the regime applicable to the results is what is foreseen for the results generated by UPC staff (Article 3) [Art. 7.4].

• Doctoral students and industrial doctoral students: the agreements that the UPC subscribes with companies or collaborating entities and the doctoral student to carry out industrial doctorate projects in the company or collaborating entity must expressly provide for the system of attribution of the results that may be generated [Art. 7.5].

• In exceptional circumstances—if, for example, companies have been involved in developing a thesis, confidentiality agreements have been entered into with companies or there is the possibility that the content of a thesis may lead to a patent—a doctoral candidate may request a specific procedure to ensure that the relevant information is not made public in the thesis defence or when the thesis is deposited in institutional repositories.
   
• The doctoral candidate must expressly request that the academic committee of the programme apply this procedure, before the deposit and in the manner stipulated by the committee [Section 10.3].
   
• In particular cases, the academic committee of the doctoral programme may take measures to ensure that aspects of the thesis liable to be patented are not disclosed during the defence, as laid out in Section 10.3 [Section 15.1].

• To enhance the visibility of theses and increase the citation impact of their authors, once a doctoral thesis has received a positive assessment it will be published in the UPC’s open-access repository for doctoral theses (UPCommons) and in the repository for Catalan universities (TDX).

• To this end, the author must sign a document containing a declaration of authorship and provisions related to the regulation of rights and any other authorisations required for the dissemination of the thesis. The administrative unit will provide these documents to doctoral candidates when their thesis is deposited.

• If the thesis contains any confidential material, or if the author has signed a contract or undertaking with a publication to which he or she is transferring his or her copyright, it will be published in the TDX repository when the thesis protection or copyright transfer process ends [Section 15.4].

• To give effect to this provision, when a doctoral candidate has entered into a confidentiality agreement with a company in relation to his or her thesis, or patents related to its content may be generated, he or she must submit documents certifying that this is the case to the academic committee of the corresponding doctoral programme, as detailed on the website of the UPC’s Doctoral School.

• Given that the author of the thesis remains the exclusive owner of all associated rights, only he or she may perform any other act of exploitation or transfer of rights—for example, by translating the thesis, publishing it for sale or granting a Creative Commons licence.
   
• The University reserves the non-exclusive right to publicly communicate the thesis by depositing it in the UPCommons and TDX institutional repositories. Notwithstanding the UPC’s (non-exclusive) right to publicly communicate theses, they shall not be disseminated in the following cases:
   
  • The work infringes the intellectual property rights of one or more third parties.
  • A patent application may be filed based on the content of the thesis.
  • Confidentiality agreements with third parties are in force (e.g. with companies or publishers).

Permit the receiving party (assignee) to use the work in accordance with the terms of the assignment agreement and concurrently with other assignees and the assignor. The rights of assignees are non-transferable.

The author allows specific uses of the work to be made that are more permissive than those allowed by the Intellectual Property Act:

• All CC licences allow users to reproduce, distribute and publicly communicate the works.
• Depending on the licence chosen, the author can also allow the commercialisation and/or creation of derivative works (translations, etc.).
• The user must always mention and recognize the authorship, and provide a link to the original CC licence in case the work is reused or disseminated.

The works can ONLY be used in accordance with the Intellectual Property Act:

• A reservation of rights is established by which, without prejudice to existing legal exemptions (such as private copying or the right to citation), reproduction, distribution, public communication or transformation of the work is prohibited.
• The user of the work who wishes to use the work in any way that is not a legal exemption must contact the author and/or owner of the rights to request permission.