At 07:58 AM 9/2/00 -0400, Howard McGinnis wrote:
>Some questions of IP and IP ownership for the group...
>
>Our company develops "form, fit and function" replacement parts
>(controllers) for various companies. These are developed as "products",
>regardless of how unique the item is and we try to reuse designs and
>technology as much as possible to reduce our design, development and
>manufacturing costs. The end price to the customer usually reflects the
>cost of manufacturing, warranty, risk, overhead and the recouping of R&D
>costs in excess of the NRE we may have charged to develop the product.
>
>If our contract (purchase order) merely states "Design replacement for XXX
>and deliver YYY prototype units", would one think that this means that the
>customer is automatically entitled to the IP?
>
>Our position is that IP remains with us unless otherwise clearly stated in
>the contracts or purchase orders. What can we do to strengthen our position?

Our contracts state that the individual software and hardware modules that
go into a client's design are and remain our property.  The client gets a
non-exclusive licence to use those modules for that design only.  It has
caused some consternation with some of our clients (Canada Post being the
most difficult) but we stand firm on this - we regard these modules as
being 'tools' in our toolbox and thus used where ever we need them.

I really don't know what would happen if litigation arose over this issue,
but the intent of our contracts is very plain and the client must accept
those terms or we decline the job and send them elsewhere.

dwayne



Dwayne Reid   <dwayner@planet.eon.net>
Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd    Edmonton, AB, CANADA
(780) 489-3199 voice          (780) 487-6397 fax

Celebrating 16 years of Engineering Innovation (1984 - 2000)

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