Hi Barbara,
I run a private R&D lab that faces these kinds of concerns on a weekly
basis. I have also done similar work in startups, governments, and various
partnerships. Within my R&D lab, we have some lawyers on staff and external
council on retainer for these kinds of challenges. Initially I found these
kids of IP questions of concern, but it gets easier if you make the
situation less about IP and more about general terms of the relationship.
There is a lot of precedent.
Before jumping to conclusion on Gunnar's advice (which is overall solid), I
suggest you consider the overall risk relative to maturity of the
initiative. For example, startups that have no financing, zero customers
and only a minimal product will usually suffer by attempting to protect IP
at every interaction. It sounds counterintuitive but this is held as a
poor idea. Sure, someone might steal their idea! - but transforming an
insight into a business takes a massive amount of sacrifice. Hiring people,
office space, and building an organization is no small matter. Also, like
any research project, it only takes some google searches to discover the
novel idea is in fact not so novel. So if the byproducts of the workshop
are potentially complex or expensive to implement, but the participants
are valued for their brains rather than their wallets - you have minimal
risk.
However, if you are working in a context that is highly financed and with
stakeholders who are individually highly resourced on a very niche problem
(do these persons own companies? do they have capital to materialize an
insight within days or weeks?0 then the risk calculation is very
different. You want legal clarity up front. Get an IP agreement in place
ASAP.
In general, you can't go wrong to consult legal to get some kind of
up-front agreement on who owns any possible IP but depending on the risk
assessment, this can work better if embedded in a less awkward document,
like a broad spectrum MOU that can be shared by email in advance. The most
important thing is that you have a policy and others are aware of the
policy. The details of the policy depend on the risk.
- Mitch
On Mon, Sep 17, 2018 at 1:22 PM Barbara Trippeer <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Hello Designer, Researchers, and Innovators
>
> As part of a public/private partnership on behalf of my institution, I am
> currently involved in some research which pertains to use of domestic
> additive manufacturing methods as an alternative to traditional modes of
> current industry production in the garment industry.
>
> At this phase, we are about to embark on user testing of the current
> prototypes before market finalization, which will involve participants who
> qualify using the product for a week as part of a wear test, reporting out,
> and then a follow up focus group for recaps.
>
> One of the issues which came up recently in the final stages of the
> planning for the rollout of these user testing scenarios has to do with
> protecting the product innovation from participants who inadvertently
> "lose" the prototypes, or, more realistically, whisk them away for
> competitive analysis.
>
> Beyond having participants sign some sort of an NDA as part of the
> eligibility qualification process, I was wondering if anyone had any other
> recommendations or best practices that they might share in a similar
> situation when trying to protect the IP behind the prototype design?
>
> Thank you
> Barbara
>
> Barbara Trippeer
> Assistant Professor, Fashion Design Apparel
>
>
> 227 W. 27th
> Suite B713
> New York NY 10001-5992
> United States
>
> 212.217.5193
> [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
> Barbara
>
> On Thu, Sep 13, 2018 at 4:56 PM CHARLES BURNETTE <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > Ken, Heidi, and others in this thread,
> >
> > To get a grasp on how scientists are beginning to define beauty in ways
> > non scientists can appreciate I highly recommend.
> >
> > Chatterjee, A. 2014: The Aesthetic Brain: How We Evolved to Desire
> > Beauty and Enjoy Art”, New York, Oxford University Press
> >
> > Two of my papers “ Beauty In and By Design” and "The Role of Aesthetics
> > in Design Thinking” also address the subject of the thread.
> > Both can be downloaded in their original versions from
> > http://www.independent.academia.edu/charlesburnette <
> > http://www.independent.academia.edu/charlesburnette>
> > If you want , slightly better revised versions please email me.
> >
> > There is also wonderful new science on intuition and insight that is
> > showing the way to scientifically based design thinking in papers at
> the
> > above address.
> >
> > Finding the common ground with science is the way forward for design ,
> > and need not sacrifice its humanistic nature.
> >
> > Or so I still believe,
> > Chuck
> > 10 <>
> > New York, Oxford University Press,
> >
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> >
>
>
> --
> Barbara Trippeer
> Educator, Fashion Design
> m: (972)-374-8195
> e: barbaratrippeer@ <[log in to unmask]>gmail.com
>
>
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