Stock Plan License Decision

[ReD]

Would like to hear your thoughts on this

I had an enquiry by a timber frame company (just starting up) to see if I had any house plans I could let them use in their new brochure & to get the ball rolling for them.

Now I have a fair few house types available just sitting around & not earning me any money so I sent a few samples. They were delighted but it transpired they were not able to pay what I would call a decent rate for their use. So I've mulled over & decided to allow them the use of the house types for a year & an annual fee thereafter for each type. Kind of a License Agreement.

The off shoot for me is the potential for additional work, + plus additional income per plan set ordered + additional charges for any customer modifications needed.

Advice I seek is the wording of the license agreement and any pitfalls you can forsee & how to avoid complications.

Thanks

[taxodaxo]

ReD

We have just gone through some agreements to do with intellectual property, and a couple of the things that you may wish to consider are:

You retain the copyright.... this is absolutely essential, and means that you'll have to copyright your work, but there are inexpensive routes to do this I believe.

In your agreement with them put a clause that requires your permission for how and where they are . (This would, for example , prevent them from putting a whole set of prints on a website for me to download and build from at no fee to you)

Since you are asking for an annual fee I would have it written in the agreement a mechanism to keep track of exact numbers and which specific blueprints were used. ( actually in our agreement we have the right to know the clients name, address etc.) This would allow you to track usage, and adjust your annual fee accordingly.

Another thing is a clause that does not give them exclusive rights to any of your work. Self evident as to why.

Next you must insist as to how you are credited for your work, as you must be, and visibly.

Lastly at least for the moment, I would have a clause that gives you the right to terminate the contract at any time. In most cases we also concede that right to the "partner" reciprocally which usually gives them comfort, and assures that you are not stuck with a bad deal forever.

Hope this helps if I can think of more I will post later

[ReD]

Thanks taxodaxo I would be interested to have more feedback when you have time.
At this moment the intended drawings are simple 2D Plan layouts with some coloured 3D visuals. No complete drawing sets will be issued until ordered by their customer. This does not stop copyright infringement or unauthorised use of the design by others .. I know you can put watermarks etc but I have little faith in this as a complete deterrent.