for the Collaborative Age
trademarks, copyrights, entertainment, and Internet law as well as
licensing, transactional, and litigation matters.
1000 The Tower
1601 NW Expressway, Suite 1000
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73118
405.607.8600 Phone
405.607.8686 Fax
mbriggs@dunlapcodding.com
www.dunlapcodding.com
1000 The Tower
1601 NW Expressway, Suite 1000
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73118
405.607.8600 Phone
405.607.8686 Fax
dsorocco@dunlapcodding.com
www.dunlapcodding.com
He practices in the areas of intellectual property, technology, licensing,
life sciences, and patent law and is involved in counseling and
transactional work involving all aspects of intellectual property. He is
registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark
Office. Doug regularly counsels clients in all aspects of intellectual
property including acquisition and commercialization of intellectual
property, portfolio management, licensing, and transactional matters.
the top, this familiar and often used
Millennial-generation refrain is becom-
ing a reality for industries that rely on
creativity and innovation. Creators,
innovators and "makers" (hereafter,
innovators) are realizing that isolation
can equal death that intricate projects
require the expertise and participation of
widely varying talents. It is not uncom-
mon for complex engineering or product
development teams to include design-
ers, marketers, business professionals,
accountants, engineers, programmers,
artists and other "big thinker types" to
bring a concept to fruition or market.
During the initial stages of any project,
the participants are typically on the same
page and smitten with the common goal
time, relationships and organizations
change; sometimes they sour and lawyers
are called in to clean up the toxic stew. If
issues pertaining to ownership of a proj-
ect, including individual contributions
made to the project, are not addressed
up front, the parties will likely end up in
some rather sticky and complex situa-
tions. Collaborate or die should therefore
really be read as "collaborate and you
may die" if the upfront good feelings are
not matched with proper planning for the
ownership and control of the project or
creation.
As the innovator, it is critical to ask
yourself "Who is working with me to
bring my concept to life?" Unfortunately,
the tendency of many innovators or
for it, I own it." While this may be a logi-
cal assumption, it is not always a correct
conclusion. With an understanding of the
role and scope of involvement that is to
be made by such third parties, you can
effectively avoid the pitfalls that lurk.
creating a novel piece of construction
machinery and you ask your lawyer for
assistance. During product development,
you realize that the services of a third-
party software developer are required in
order to engineer the computer code for
the machinery. Your lawyer advises you
that you will want to own all rights to the
copyright in that software code. If you do
not, there is a risk that the third-party
developer will retain ownership of the
underlying copyright in and to the devel-
oped software. If the developer retains
such control, he or she could, in the fu-
ture, require that you pay a licensing fee
or royalties in order to continue to use
the software code; or he or she could turn
around and sell that code to a competitor.
It is in your best interest, when possible,
to own all intellectual property associ-
ated with the machine being developed.
The best time to negotiate for these rights
is up front when everyone is in the haze
of collaborative bliss.