Guidelines for the Treatment of Intellectual Property Rights in ICT Contracts

The Government, in January 2008, approved Guidelines for the Treatment of Intellectual Property Rights in ICT Contracts. These guidelines set out the government policy for State Services agencies to follow. As a general rule, the commercialisation of this intellectual property should be carried out by the commercial sector.

The guidelines consist of an statement of aims, a statement of policy, principles, ownership and commercialisation options, associated licensing considerations, and recommended clauses for insertion in agency ICT contracts.

Please Note: These guidelines cannot be construed as legal advice. Agencies are encouraged to seek independent legal advice about any legal risks and associated implications when setting up their ICT projects and before completing their ICT contracts.

PreviewAttachmentSize
ipr-guidelines-2008.pdf217.26 KB

Content in this section

  • Frequently Asked Questions

    What are these Guidelines?These guidelines set out the government's approach to the ownership and commercialisation of intellectual property rights (IPR) in government agencies' Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) contracts. They present agencies with three clearly defined options regarding ownership and licensing of new IPR to be created, and assist them select the most appropriate option for any given contract. The guidelines promote economic development by:

    Read more

  • Overview of the Guidelines

    Guidelines for Treatment of Intellectual Property Rights in New Zealand State Services ICT ContractsA pictorial overview of the structure and content of these Guidelines:Overview of the structure and content of these GuidelinesScopeThese Guidelines are principally concerned with new Intellectual Property in ICTcontracts.

    Read more

  • Scope of the Guidelines

    Typically ICT contracts will be with national or multi-national vendors, external service providers, systems integrators, software developers and sole traders. The services and deliverables may consist of both existing IP and new IP, and new IP can be created through provision of the deliverables as well as through the Supplier’s performance of the contract.

    Read more

  • Aim Statement

    Government’s AimThe Government has set goals for achieving economic transformation and sustainable development for New Zealand. The Government sees commercialisation of intellectual property rights (IPR) arising from ICT contracts as an important way to create benefits for New Zealand. Generally, it sees commercialisation of the IPR as best achieved by the commercial sector.

    Read more

  • Guidelines

    Decisions on ownership and commercialisation optionsWhen considering how to treat IPR in each ICT contract, agencies should take an all-of-government approach and apply government procurement best practices.

    Read more

  • Appendix One

    Model Ownership and Licensing ClausesThis appendix includes recommended clauses for implementing the ownership and licensing options described in the body of these Guidelines. The clauses come in three versions:

    Read more

  • Licence Arrangements

    Option TwoCustomer Agency owns the IPR, Supplier commercialisesIf the Customer Agency is to own the IPR and licence the Supplier to commercialise the IP (Option Two), the agency will need to decide what type of licence to grant to the Supplier. The main options, all assuming terms allowing commercialisation, are:

    Read more

  • Decision Process for determining ownership and commercialisation

      Determining the ownership and commercialisation of the new IP in deliverablesThere are potentially two decisions to be made:Ownership of the new Intellectual Property;How to commercialisation the new Intellectual Property.The second decision is conditional on the first.

    Read more

  • Background to the Guidelines

    Historical ContextAgencies have tended to consider IPR ownership from their own rather than a wider all-of-government perspective, and to adopt an unofficial default position when negotiating ICT contracts that they will own any new IP created.

    Read more

  • Purpose of the Guidelines

    These Guidelines set out the Government’s approach to the ownership and commercialisation of intellectual property rights (IPR) in State Services agencies’ ICT contracts. The Guidelines have been developed in response to requests from agencies to the State Services Commission for advice.

    Read more

  • Definitions

    In these Guidelines, unless the context indicates otherwise, the following Definitions apply:

    Read more