Design Contrats And Intelectual Property Ownership

Discussion in 'Boat Design' started by zstine, Sep 23, 2022.

  1. jehardiman
    Joined: Aug 2004
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    jehardiman Senior Member

    Ah yes, the economic weaponization of the scholarly article/paper. The ceramic turbocharger was the example used when I was at UofM (early 1980's).
     
  2. BMcF
    Joined: Mar 2007
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    Location: Maryland

    BMcF Senior Member

    My marine engineering company has taken on projects for clients that had some pretty wild ideas and patents pending. We were paid (well) to turn their ideas in to reality, to the greatest extent possible, and they owned the product and the IP at the end. We've done that for "whole ship" projects and we've done that for stabilization system concepts. What none of those clients owned at the end was any of the technical know-how that we brought to bear on realizing their idea and that is clearly spelled out in the mutual NDAs. There have been a couple cases where the client did overreach after the fact and try to include our IP in their patents. That's a risk we took.
     
  3. Kayakmarathon
    Joined: Sep 2014
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    Kayakmarathon Senior Member

    I've worked on NASA contracts where the contractor patented original methods of achieving the stated design goals, but NASA was delivered the finished system and all the supporting mechanical drawings / wiring diagrams / schematics / circuit layouts / firmware source code. The contractor could not sell the designs to another space systems company/country without the consent of NASA.
     
  4. DCockey
    Joined: Oct 2009
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    DCockey Senior Member

    And then there is the intentional disclosure to prevent someone else from patenting an invention. My former employer would sometimes publish a short article disclosing an idea in an obscure pay for publication journal.
     
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  5. Skyak
    Joined: Jul 2012
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    Skyak Senior Member

    Intentional disclosure and trade secret retention is the best strategy in most cases for most organizations. The primary reason is the high cost of lawyers and the poor protection in IP law.
    Getting back to the original question and all the subsequent replies, can we conclude that:
    1) there is no standard practice across the industry.
    2) there is significant dissatisfaction in everyone's past experience and this strongly influences their professional demands.

    My experience and observation is that everyone is trying for that "easy" passive income by contract for a future nobody can anticipate and neglecting the efforts and expenses of their counterparties. My solution is to treat the work as an enterprise and use the tools and structures that have been so successful in technology.
     

  6. rxcomposite
    Joined: Jan 2005
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    Location: Philippines

    rxcomposite Senior Member

    There is some sort of standards. Call it company policy or practice as long as it is clearly conveyed to the customer. It follows very closely what Eric S has stated.

    I worked for a local boatbuilding company that is capable of engineering design and has a team of NA, draftsman, and engineers. The builder also practices building standards and procedures that will mostly satisfy class rules. The customer would come in with a set of drawings, specifications and SOR, and sometimes a requirement to pass a local class or statutory rules. We would charge them an engineering fee to design the scantlings, provide the drawing required to pass the statutory rules and that's it. Only the official documents transmitted. All the internal documents referring to scantling calculations, stability, powering, ACAD drawings, ect, stays with us. That includes detailed construction drawings that is passed to the shop floor. In short, no lock stock and barrel. If they decide to change their mind and go to another builder, they have only the official documents they paid for.

    Second job was for strictly Marine engineering company, again with a full set of NA's, Engineers and draftsman. Given a drawing, specs and an SOR, we develop the ship to meet the criteria. Should they asked for a Class Rule, the plans and drawings will be provided to pass the particular Class. They are entitled to 5 sets of HARD COPY only. No ACAD drawings. That way they cannot modify/erase/change the drawing which indicates the engineering firm that designed the marine structure. And it could be as simple as a lifting cradle or mooring equipment. Should they decide to claim it as their own IP, they would have to redraw the whole thing, paste their name and do the calculations again. Nothing we can do about that but they end up doing the same thing over again.

    You get what you pay for.
     
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