Mine mine!!!

I work for the kind of company that makes IT type stuff.

So in order to get our jobs done, we end up having to hire A LOT of people with expertise we don’t have to fill in the gaps and make our stuff, well, work right.

Which inevitably bring the question of…is IP created? And if so, who owns it?

“We pay you to make it, we own it,” we say, quite convinced of our rightness.

“It’s our knowledge, know how and proprietary materials we’re bringing to the table, WE own it,” the supplier replies, quite convinced of their own rightness.

And what ensues is, usually, a squabble of epic proportions.

Lawyers get indignant. Sales Weasels get bitchy. And in the end, we usually find some ground we can kind of agree to.

But this is becoming a big issue. I know our suppliers would LOVE to go out there and say “Hey, we made this for The Company! Ya want it!?!?”

We’d rather they piped down and kept it to themselves.

And there’s the issue of both confidential and highly sensitive competitive details being passed on to competition.

And the issue of the supplier getting paid to make something AND getting paid to sell it to others.

A tug o’ war of epic proportions.

I’d love to hear from Procurement folks and Lawyers too. How do you get around this sticky issue?