Resolved Question: How can I protect my intellectual property from being plagiarized, without patenting it?

(1) If you insist on not getting a patent, then you are insisting to forgo the measures that are intended to protect your intellectual property. So you really have no way of protecting that property. The only thing you can do is hide it from those who would want to duplicate it.

(2) Yes, the majority of useful and patentable ideas that come out of universities are patented. All major universities have programs or departments that facilitate the patenting of ideas and products. In fact, this is a major source of income for universities, so these departments are usually quite substantial and efficient. However, universities claim the patent rights to all work that is done by students using university resources, for university classes, or at university labs. This is quite similar to the way businesses retain the patent rights to the work of their employees, instead of the employees themselves having patent rights. What compensation the students get for their patented ideas depends on the university. Many schools give the 'inventor' some percentage of any profits as an incentive to patent, while others do not.

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