O/T Who owns the mold/programs

[ERIC14779]

We have a customer who paid a tool shop 1/2 Mil. last year to design and create an advertising in store display and the vacuumforming tooling to produce.

 

It consisted of cnc routed laminated partical board pcs. plastic pcs some electrical (battery) lights and bolts/screws

 

Again he was paid to design and build all tooling and cnc programs. He created it by scanning a model truck and stretching and scaling it to a non descript truck body shape.

 

Now the question is does the company who paid the 1/2 Mil. own all the work done and the tools? by this I mean everything CAD files CNC files molds jigs fixtures... the whole works.

 

He billed them for it all.

 

or does He ( the mold maker ) own some or all ???

 

The mold maker says that that is his "intelectual" property

 

but he sold it to our customer ..... Right ???

 

Let me know what you guys think

 

Eric

[Scott Bond]

quote:

---

He billed them for it all.

---

Exact wording on the P.O. and the billreally matters a lot.

 

quote:

---

The mold maker says that that is his "intelectual" property

---

I.M.H.O.

Anything that was created to manufacture the

mold belongs to the manufacturer.(aka moldmaker)

=====electrodes,custom jaws,cad programs,texture patterns===and so on are not part of a mold.

 

quote:

---

but he sold it to our customer ..... Right ???

---

Again, Exact wording on the P.O. and the bill really matter. With out seeing them I remain unconvinced, that the moldmaker has to give up any tooling, or cad files , even molding parameters are concidered to be proprietary.

 

This is only M.H.O.(I hope it helps)

If you would like more help on identifying custermer requirements,or setting custermer expectations to those requirements, I am available.

 

[ 05-16-2002, 07:45 PM: Message edited by: Scott Bond ]

[gary dunn]

when i hired on, i signed a doc that says my company owns my "intellectual property". my guess would be that you could give the customer the mc8 or 9 files on a disk and both of you would have them. does it really matter ? i don't know that one.

[cadcam]

ERIC14779, actually all the cad files should be given to the customer along with the mold if asked.

That is property of the customer given for production of there mold and there mold only.

 

All files that pertain to the customer’s part that customer owns have to be given.

The customer should be able to ask them for a copy and that they must destroy any copies.

 

Per Patent laws this should be so.

 

Here is my .002

 

Is there a Patent on this part that the mold was made for?

[mold100]

We go both ways. seriously though we have one inparticular customer that

requests we store all files a certain way.They want files,posted code,everything.Most others if they dont ask we dont share,why should we offer to teach them how we build molds,they give us a part design,we give them a mold to produce it.We give them a spec book and a copy of the prints,but nothing else.Technically they own it.Logically they dont.Just my opinion.

[ERIC14779]

Thanks for your replies

 

To further clear up this situation the company who paid the 1/2 Mil. has no interest or ability to become a competitor to us or the guy who was paid to design and develop this product.

 

Now the real problem is that without the cad data it will be more involved for US to create toolpaths for TRIMMING the plastic PARTS.

 

Lastly the toolmaker is tring to COMPETE with US and get to make the plastic parts. the final customer knows that the toolmaker is not experienced in plastic forming and would not want to buy from him.

 

But if the final customer can not get the tooling/CAD CAM data then the final customer will have to pay us to "reinvent the wheel" to make parts.

[ERIC14779]

One more thing....

 

When I say Tooling/Jigs/Fixtures/Programs

 

I mean the items used to make the production parts

 

See in vacuumforming you need a mold to form the part then you have to trim the part out of the sheet... So you have to have JIGS or FIXTURES that you build specific for the parts you are making and we in the business charge the customer for them... we call it trim fixtures or trim jigs.

 

I understand that a angle plate or hold down would not be included in what the cusomer buys.

simularly an auto mechanics tools are his and always will be but all parts he buys for your car are yours once you pay him.

[ERIC14779]

anybody else ????

[Surface]

I had a customer once who threatened to take me to court claiming that he paid for the parts, geometry and toolpath. In reality, he paid for my programing time, but to apease him, I created special geometry and wrote special programs which I gave to him.

I don't think he could use the information i supplied, since each surface was its own file and everything was cut using a 1/16 endmill, but as long as he is happy:)

The customer is always right