Although law and regulation governing the distribution of intellectual property rights has significant implications for the cost, quality, and adaptability of educational products and services, PreK-12 education researchers have largely overlooked this issue. Recent changes to federal regulations in the U.S. require some federally funded educational products to be 'open license,' allowing the public to freely use curricula, tests, and other deliverables created using U.S. Department of Education (ED) competitive grant funds. The new regulations represent a significant departure from earlier 'closed license' regulations that permitted ED grant recipients to restrict others' use of their copyrightable grant deliverables. Focusing on these new regulations, this manuscript introduces education scholars to law regarding who owns products created with federal funds and summarizes opinions about the proposed ED rule change's implications for the cost, quality, and adaptability of educational products. We then examine existing evidence regarding open and closed licensing, noting the lack of study of educational products. To fill this gap, we emphasize the importance of moving beyond the past focus on entirely open and entirely closed licensing policies, using the example of educational assessments to highlight pressing unanswered questions and suggest how educational researchers might construct a research agenda moving forward.