Draft a contract clause regarding one of the following topics
Intellectual Property (IP) Clause regarding ownership of IP
- What IP are you attempting to cover? You need a good definition of the property.
- Will the employee or licensee assist in protecting the IP by applying for a copyright, patent, trademark, or any other type of protection? This is important as in many situations, the author or inventor cannot be a corporation. It must be an individual. Ergo, the need for the author or inventor to apply for the protection and then assign any copyright or patent to the company.
- Limits on disclosure of any proprietary information.
- Who will own any IP developed by the employee or licensee? Will it be the employer, licensor, or be shared in some way?
- What geographic limitations are associated with the IP? You need to remember that much IP protections are not worldwide, but specific to a particular country.
- Who will pay for any defense of the IP if challenged?
- Remedies for any breach of the IP agreement.