[BNM] Interlectual Property rights

[Tom Dussek (Hotmail)]

Are you able to define components that have been directly developed for 
your client, and specify that these will be transferred whereas 
components not developed specifically for them will not? After all, you 
pay a mechanic for the work on your car, but you don't get to keep his 
tools as well.

Tom Dussek


Andy Gale wrote:
>> Anyone know about the implications of this, escpecially on some of my
>> libraries which are going to be in an open source project?
> 
> It really does depend what you agreed at the start of the project. What do
> your terms and conditions say? Do they say all the IP of all code will be
> transferred to client?
> 
> If you do transfer the IP for your libraries they obviously can't be in the
> open source project.
> 
> I would tell them that some of the components of the work such as PHP, the
> PHP libraries and your libraries that were not written specifically for the
> project are open source and because of this you are unable to transfer the
> IP from them, but you will of course be happy to transfer the IP for all
> other components.
> 
> I'd imagine the client is only trying to ensure that you do not sell an
> exact copy of the site they paid for to one of their competitors. As long as
> you reassure them that the portions of the site you cannot transfer the IP
> for are not significant to the functionality you developed for them, they
> should accept that.
> 
> If you don't have T&Cs, learn from this and ensure the terms of business are
> clearly defined before you undertake your next project.
> 
> Andy
> 
>