The U.S. Copyright Act defines a “work made for hire” as (1) a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment; or (2) a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work, as a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or as an atlas, if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire. A “supplementary work” is a work prepared for publication as a secondary adjunct to a work by another author for the purpose of introducing, concluding, illustrating, explaining, revising, commenting upon, or assisting in the use of the other work, such as forewords, afterwords, pictorial illustrations, maps, charts, tables, editorial notes, musical arrangements, answer material for tests, bibliographies, appendixes and indexes, and an “instructional text” is a literary, pictorial, or graphic work prepared for publication and with the purpose of use in systematic instructional activities.
The APSCUF Collective Bargaining Agreement further clarifies that the creator is compensated by PASSHE. An operational definition of work for hire for these guidelines is:
Work commissioned by the University and developed by faculty under campus consulting, extra service or technical assistance agreements regardless of compensation,
OR
work completed by non-faculty employees, students, and personnel as part of the scope of employment.
Ownership and creative control of works made for hire by PASSHE faculty will be governed by an agreement between the University and the faculty member made prior to the commencement of the work.[1]
"Work made for hire" is a term of art that should be applied to intellectual property that is subject to the Copyright Act and NOT to other types of intellectual property, such as inventions, in general.
[1] APSCUF CBA, Art. 39.B.9