[LINK] Beechwood homes and IP

[Lea de Groot]

On Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:53:05 +1000, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
> And third, organisations are accustomed to exaggerating their claims ... 
> I agree that the customers should have a license to use the plans; I 
> hope people weren't fools enough to let the contracts assign rights to 
> the plans to the builder.

The case in the paper was an interesting one - it seemed the pensioner 
couple had an architect draw up plans then selected Beechwood to build 
for them - and yet Beechwood owned the plans?!?
Something is very wrong there.
Did the contract specify that the builder gained the IP? Why? If not, 
why does council think the builder's name on the council submission 
gives the builder IP? 
All very odd. I wonder what that architect thinks of all this?
If a standard component of project builder contracts is to demand the 
IP of supplied house plans then I think someone needs to take a close 
look at the industry

Lea
-- 
Lea de Groot
Brisbane, .au