Ask HN: Intellectual Property Ownership For Free Work
For one of my university subjects we are given a real world client with a real world problem to solve. The only major issue I have hit with this client is to do with the intellectual property ownership of the final product. Our university policy states that we own the IP for everything we make for university. The client wishes to own all the IP for everything we create to do with this project.
When my group first looked at the projects, we each estimated the time required to do parts of the project while reusing our own existing code bases.
Two weeks into the project (and around the time we had something presentable), the client informs us that they would like to be able to adapt the code and have it redone in the future. I sent an email to the client that week suggesting that we hand over a copy of the code, as well as all the documentation required to compile it, set up the servers required and develop it further. Unfortunately two weeks later they respond saying they want it all.
I am somewhat happy to hand over the IP for the code I am writing, however it'll mean I can not use the existing code base I have, and hence will double the time required to complete. The guy working on the API also has the issue where not using his existing code would double the time to complete the task, but unfortunately he has already completed this and redoing it will put us well over the budgeted hours.
Has anyone else in HN had similar IP issues? Can you help me think of a way that will keep the client happy while still allowing us to retain the IP for the code?
Mitch