Reflections on Hive Tracks and Bee Informed Partnership ethics case study

I was a part of the group that looked into intellectual property as it relates to ethical issues with HiveTracks and Bee Informed Partnership. Here are my three biggest takeaways from our group discussion and the presentation:

1. Intellectual property in software is much more complicated than it seems. There a some things that can be patented or protected by copyright law but many things that can’t. Also the software that is written for a company is owned by the company. 
2. Before forming a partnership on a project that could possibly grow into a business, sign an agreement so that the software is owned by the business and not the individual who wrote it.
3. Software ownership can get very complicated. In the case of the Bee Informed Partnership, multiple universities were involved and the USDA had given the universities a grant to fund the project. This is something I will keep in mind if I ever decide to form a startup of my own and is one of the most important things I will remember form this class.