Intellectual Property in Network Design

[richard at pedantictheory.com (Richard Porter)]

> On Feb 12, 2015, at 5:43 PM, Ahad Aboss <ahad at telcoinabox.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Skeeve,
> 
> In a sense, you are an artist as network architecture is an art in itself.
> It involves interaction with time, processes, people and things or an
> intersection between all.
And to that, artwork would fall under copyright *Sarcasm*? +1 on art form! More like an abstract martial art really. PacketFu!
> 
> As an architect, you analyze customer needs and design a solution using
> your creative ideas to address their business driven needs today. In some
> ways, this is easier because creating a
If you are a consultant wouldnâ??t that fall under work for hire? If you are an employee? Check the contract, I am betting there is a clause for IP ownership!

> business centric network provides you some parameters to design within.
> You might mix and match technologies that will suite one business better
> than the other but it's your creative ideas. It's not secrets of their
> trade that you replicate or takeaway. You are master of the trade and you
> design a solution that works best for them.
> 
> While some design principles for application service provider, enterprise,
> carrier or ISP have similarities, no two network is the same.

> 
> If you don't claim IP on the design or publish company names you've done
> the designs for, under what jurisdiction can they claim what you designed
> is their IP? What if their requirement changes in 6 months from now?
> 
> If a architect designs a road system in a particular way, does it mean
> he/she can't design another road again because of IP issue?
> 
> I would tend to disagree.
+1
> 
> It may not answer your questions but I hope it provides some content to
> support your case :)
> 
> Regards,
> Ahad
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NANOG [mailto:nanog-bounces at nanog.org] On Behalf Of Owen DeLong
> Sent: Friday, 13 February 2015 6:46 AM
> To: William Herrin
> Cc: nanog at nanog.org
> Subject: Re: Intellectual Property in Network Design
> 
> 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 "work for
> hire"
> 		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 at herrin.us> wrote:
>> 
>> On Thu, Feb 12, 2015 at 7:36 AM, Skeeve Stevens
>> <skeeve+nanog at eintellegonetworks.com> wrote:
>>> Actually Bill... I have two (conflicting) perspectives as I said....
>>> but to
>>> clarify:
>>> 
>>> 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....
>> 
>> Hi Skeeve,
>> 
>> IANAL but I play one when I can get away with it.
>> 
>> 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."
>> 
>> So yes, it's technically feasible.
>> 
>> 
>>> 2) If I design some amazing solutions... am I able to claim IP.
>> 
>> 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.
>> 
>> 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.
>> 
>> 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.
>> 
>> If the contract doesn't say one way or another then the lawyer who
>> wrote it was asleep at the wheel.
>> 
>> 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.
>> 
>> Regards,
>> Bill Herrin
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> William Herrin ................ herrin at dirtside.com  bill at herrin.us
>> Owner, Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/>