January 25, 2007

Engineering

Engineers' intellectual property

Profession must assert its ownership rights

PETER KENTER

correspondent

TORONTO

Intellectual property isn’t a term often associated with the construction industry. The Consulting Engineers of Ontario (CEO) is among those professional groups attempting to teach engineers how to assert their rights over their intellectual property, including the building designs they create.

“The designs of engineers and architects have intellectual property rights attached to them and those rights remain with the originator unless they’re expressly signed away,” says John Gamble, president of CEO.

“Turning over a document or finishing a project is different from giving over intellectual property.”

Gamble advises professionals to look carefully at contract language before signing away intellectual property rights, noting in a bulletin released to members “that some services agreements contain contractual language that allows the owner or client to retain ownership of the intellectual property in the work product and its content.”

“I think our profession is too modest,” says Gamble. “We’re reluctant to stand up and take a bow for the ways in which we enhance the quality of life, be it designing transportation and water systems or contributing to the aesthetic qualities of life.

“A lot of engineers don’t recognize they are legally entitled to their intellectual property and they still own it after delivering a project unless they sign it away or license it.”

"We're reluctant to stand up and take a bow."

John Gamble

CEO

Gamble recommends CEO members negotiate design royalty fees that continue through the life of a completed structure.

He also notes some of the intellectual property of a project may include ideas or techniques that contractors and other building professionals should recognize as the property of the designer.

“Everyone likes a new idea. I could see a contractor or a consultant working on a unique project, then while working on another job, say ‘here’s a great idea I saw somewhere else.’ Some aspects of the first design could include intellectual property,” Gamble adds.

“George Harrison spent many years in court because he absent-mindedly copied music from another song. Engineering is as much art as science, and imitation — even imitation that is not deliberate — is possible in any creative endeavour.”

Even in the demolition industry, contractors may have to deal with issues of proprietary technology in industrial plants that are being dismantled.

“It’s something that’s often overlooked in the industrial sector,” says Shawn Murray, president of Murray Demolition. “The bottom line is that prior to decommissioning industrial sites, building owners should establish what is superfluous and what is important to be demolished and destroyed.

“Industrial equipment that isn’t destroyed may provide others with access to proprietary manufacturing technology that can be resold on the world market and the original owners may ultimately find themselves in competition with their own technology.”

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