[178024] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Intellectual Property in Network Design
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Owen DeLong)
Thu Feb 12 14:49:53 2015
X-Original-To: nanog@nanog.org
From: Owen DeLong <owen@delong.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAP-guGXbROqdfXb=Q8zwXN67w+WXFVqi0rpdoe6Wi_goJ5yVzg@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2015 11:45:35 -0800
To: William Herrin <bill@herrin.us>
Cc: "nanog@nanog.org" <nanog@nanog.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces@nanog.org
The extent to which this is technically feasible and how one must go =
about it actually varies greatly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
Something well worth considering given the number of jurisdictions =
already mentioned in the current discussion.
There are a number of possible concerns that the customer in question =
may be attempting to solve with their request. The first step is to =
identify which concern(s) they want to address.
1. Do they want to make sure that they have sufficient =
rights in
the design that they can replicate/modify/otherwise use =
it
without further compensating you?
2. Do they want to make sure that you surrender your rights =
in
the design so that you are not able to provide an =
identical
solution to another customer in the future and/or that =
you do
not use their design as an example or case study for =
your
marketing purposes?
3. Do they not really have a concern, but someone told them
that it was important to ask this question?
4. Do they want to make sure this treated as a =93work for =
hire=94
with all the legal implications that caries?
There are probably others that I am not thinking of at the moment.
Owen
> On Feb 12, 2015, at 08:18 , William Herrin <bill@herrin.us> wrote:
>=20
> On Thu, Feb 12, 2015 at 7:36 AM, Skeeve Stevens
> <skeeve+nanog@eintellegonetworks.com> wrote:
>> Actually Bill... I have two (conflicting) perspectives as I said.... =
but to
>> clarify:
>>=20
>> 1) A customer asked 'Can you make sure we have the IP for the network
>> design' which I was wondering if it is even technically possible....
>=20
> Hi Skeeve,
>=20
> IANAL but I play one when I can get away with it.
>=20
> This is usually covered as, "Contractor agrees to provide Customer
> with all documents, diagrams, software or other materials produced in
> the course of the contract. Contractor shall upon request assign all
> ownership of such materials to Customer. Contractor shall retain no
> copies of said material following termination of the contract."
>=20
> So yes, it's technically feasible.
>=20
>=20
>> 2) If I design some amazing solutions... am I able to claim IP.
>=20
> If it's copyrightable (a "solution" may be), then as a contractor (not
> an employee) the copyright vests in you. If the contract states that
> you agree to transfer it to the customer then you breach the contract
> if you don't.
>=20
> If the contract says the copyrights are theirs then at least that part
> of the contract is probably void. Barring W2 employment copyrights
> nearly always vest in the individual who first put them in to a
> tangible form. There are explicit and narrow exceptions in the law.
> Preface of a book. That sort of thing. It's unlikely you'll run afoul
> of any of them.
>=20
> Lawyers get this wrong shockingly often. IP doesn't vest in the
> customer and can't be transferred until it exists. The creator is a W2
> employee. The contractor agrees to transfer it following creation.
> Just about everything else is void.
>=20
> If the contract doesn't say one way or another then the lawyer who
> wrote it was asleep at the wheel.
>=20
> However... the techniques used to produce the solution usually
> classify as ideas. You may be bound under non-disclosure terms to not
> share ideas produced for the customer within the scope of the
> customer's system but ideas are never property. You can't own them and
> neither can the customer.
>=20
> Regards,
> Bill Herrin
>=20
>=20
>=20
> --=20
> William Herrin ................ herrin@dirtside.com bill@herrin.us
> Owner, Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/>
