Intellectual Property
Introduction
Intellectual Property rights for members are defined in Clause 53. They implement the provisions of the FairShares Brand by setting out the terms for knowledge sharing by members within the framework of a FairShares Company / Co-operative. Unlike a conventional private company, IP belongs to 'natural persons' only (individually and collectively), and is licensed to 'legal persons' under a Creative Commons Licence. Clause 53(b) states:
"As a condition of membership and/or employment, all IP created by members during their work for the Company shall be licensed to the Company under a Creative Commons Licence for both non-commercial and commercial use, with permission to adapt, share and re-use the IP in product and service development. Any product or service offered will use the same Creative Commons Licence unless a variation of this is negotiated with the creator(s) of the IP."
The right to commercialise IP is defined as an exclusive right of the enterprise if the IP was created by members while working at their FairShares Enterprise, and they remain members. However, if any of the IP creators leave and their membership ends, the exclusive right to commercialise IP becomes a non-exclusive right automatically. All members may use other members' IP for private study and non-commercial purposes. On leaving, the legal entity to which the member belongs acquires joint copyright for any IP that it commissioned (paid for) the member to create under a contract for services, or contract of service. In this case, both the member leaving and the entity of which they were a member have an autonomous right to enforce the Creative Commons Licence that applied during the period of membership. In this way, neither a FairShares Company or individual member can affect each other's right to use IP, nor can they offer IP they have jointly created using a different licence without risking the other party enforcing the pre-existing IP rights previously granted.
Members retain sole copyright holders for IP created outside a contract for services or contract of service.
Principles that apply to the creation of IP
- IP always belongs first and foremost to the natural persons (members / employees) who created it.
- Members agree to allow use and commercialisation of their IP as a condition of membership / employment
- Members' IP is managed as an 'intellectual commons' for the benefit of all members
- If a member leaves, the FairShares organisation they belonged to can acquire joint copyright only if they commissioned IP from the member (through a contract for services) or directed its creation (under a contract of service).
For the sake of clarify, the legal person that is a FairShares Company / Co-operative, association or partnership cannot exercise property rights over IP created by natural persons unless those members freely and voluntarily gift (or sell) their property rights to them. If the IP was created as a result of a conscious decision by the FairShares enterprise (as an employer directing the employee under a contract of service) or commissioned as a contractor (under a contract for services) a FairShares company, cooperative, partnership or association acquires joint copyright in that IP when the member leaves.
For the sake of clarity, if a member (not under the conscious direction of their employer) creates any IP, then they have sole copyright over that IP.
Return to the FairShares Glossary.
