Export Administration Regulations (EAR)

Except for items and activities covered under the:

• ITAR (e.g. defense articles; defense services),
• OFAC (specific economic and trade sanctions),
• NRC (e.g. nuclear material, equipment, and components)
• DOE (e.g. technology that can indirectly or directly assist in the development or production of special nuclear material),
• Patent and Trademark Office (e.g. exports of unclassified technology in patent applications)
• Department of Defense and Department of State Foreign Military Sales Program

…and except for information and “software” that:

• are published, as described in § 734.7;
• arise during, or result from, fundamental research, as described in § 734.8;
• are released by instruction in a catalog course or associated teaching laboratory of an academic institution;
• appear in patents or open (published) patent applications available from or at any patent office, unless covered by an invention secrecy order, or are otherwise patent information as described in § 734.10;
• are non-proprietary system descriptions; or
• are telemetry data as defined in Note 2 to Category 9, Product Group E (see Supplement No. 1 to part 774 of the EAR).

…the following are subject to the EAR:

• all items in the United States, including in a U.S. Foreign Trade Zone or moving in transit through the United States from one foreign country to another;
• all U.S. origin items wherever located;
• certain foreign-made commodities that incorporate or are bundled with controlled U.S.-origin commodities; foreign-made software or technology that is commingled with controlled U.S.-origin software or technology;
• certain foreign-made direct products of U.S. origin technology or software, as described in §736.2(b)(3) of the EAR.

Most items used by an average person in their everyday life are subject to the EAR. For example, your cell phone, computer, car and bicycle are all subject to the EAR.

That said, in the context of the University of Rochester, it is important to emphasize a few of the exceptions to the EAR that are particularly relevant….
Information and/or software are NOT subject to the EAR if they are:

• published;
• arise during or result from fundamental research; and/or
• released by instruction in a catalog course or associated teaching laboratory.

Fundamental research under the EAR is defined to “mean research in science, engineering, or mathematics, the results of which ordinarily are published and shared broadly within the research community, and for which the researchers have not accepted restrictions for proprietary or national security reasons.” (section 734.8 of the EAR)

Note: if the University accepts a publication restriction; foreign national access restriction; and/or does not intend to publish or broadly share research results, then the research is likely not fundamental research and consequently such resulting information and data will be subject to the EAR.