In practice I've never known IP to be an issue for undergrads. So I wouldn't annoy your professors by bugging them a lot about this.
You are many, many times more likely to lose because you built something people don't want than because your college sued you over IP. So if you're going to worry about something, worry that what you're building won't seem desirable to customers.
Bugging your profs will only show that you couldn't be bothered reading up on your university's by-laws and regulations. It could result in a down-mark.
It is really good to be confident, but in reality your undergrad work might be a lot less brilliant than you believe it to be. Some universities will actually co-venture with you if your work is patentable, etc and although you end up sharing revenue, they might foot the up-front legal costs (which can be rather substantial) - again, research what applies in your particular case.
Good Luck with your project and subsequent ventures.
Unis should also have less interest to pull a dickish move than a "mystery" cofounder may. So even if you were technically using their facilities to write your code, if a uni went after you for that it could give them tens of millions in bad PR.
Reputation matters a lot for them. Very different from some random individual who may have little to lose in suing you for stealing his idea for a social network.
Comments
Most universities have some kind of IP policy. E.g. Harvard says that software you write using their money or facilities belongs to them:
http://otd.harvard.edu/resources/policies/IP/
In practice I've never known IP to be an issue for undergrads. So I wouldn't annoy your professors by bugging them a lot about this.
You are many, many times more likely to lose because you built something people don't want than because your college sued you over IP. So if you're going to worry about something, worry that what you're building won't seem desirable to customers.
Bugging your profs will only show that you couldn't be bothered reading up on your university's by-laws and regulations. It could result in a down-mark.
It is really good to be confident, but in reality your undergrad work might be a lot less brilliant than you believe it to be. Some universities will actually co-venture with you if your work is patentable, etc and although you end up sharing revenue, they might foot the up-front legal costs (which can be rather substantial) - again, research what applies in your particular case.
Good Luck with your project and subsequent ventures.
Unis should also have less interest to pull a dickish move than a "mystery" cofounder may. So even if you were technically using their facilities to write your code, if a uni went after you for that it could give them tens of millions in bad PR.
Reputation matters a lot for them. Very different from some random individual who may have little to lose in suing you for stealing his idea for a social network.