Intellectual Property in Network Design

[smb at cs.columbia.edu (Steven M. Bellovin)]

On 12 Feb 2015, at 3:12, Skeeve Stevens wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I have two perspectives I am trying to address with regard to network
> design and intellectual property.
>
> 1) The business who does the design - what are their rights?
>
> 2) The customer who asked for the rights from a consultant
>
> My personal thoughts are conflicting:
>
> - You create networks with standard protocols, configurations, etc... 
> so it
> shouldn't be IP
> - But you can design things in interesting ways, with experience, 
> skill,
> creativity.. maybe that should be IP?
> - But artwork are created with colors, paintbrushes, canvas... but the
> result is IP
> - A photographer takes a photo - it is IP
> - But how are 'how you do your Cisco/Juniper configs' possibly IP?
> - If I design a network one way for a customer and they want 'IP', 
> does
> that mean I can't ever design a network like that again? What?
>
> I've seen a few telcos say that they own the IP related to the network
> design of their customers they deploy... which based on the above... 
> feels
> uncomfortable...
>
> I'm really conflicted on this and wondering if anyone else has come 
> across
> this situation.  Perhaps any legal cases/precedent (note, I am not 
> looking
> for legal advice :)
>
> If this email isn't appropriate for the list... sorry, and please feel 
> free
> to respond off-line.
>
> ...Skeeve

You really need to get real legal advice.  There are a fair number of 
deep
legal issues here, as best I can tell (and I'm not a lawyer); there may 
not
be anything that's actually legally protectable.  Of course, the other 
party
may have a lawyer who thinks the opposite, and there may or may not be 
enough
case law to come to a reasonably probable common answer.

So--decide what your preference is (I tend to agree with Randy, but 
that's me),
and learn what your lawyer thinks of the general question.  Then ask the 
lawyer
what to do if there are conflicting opinions on whether or not it can be
protected, and to draft language consistent with your preference and 
that
belief for the contract.


         --Steve Bellovin, https://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb