Joint Development Agreement
Joint Development Agreement
3. Conduct of collaboration
3.1 Statements of work 3.2 Project governance 3.3 General standards
Many JDAs contemplate multiple phases of For long-term or complicated projects, parties of performance
work, and in some cases initial development should consider establishing some formal Parties to a JDA should consider the
will reveal the need to add scope to the JDA. governance processes in the JDA. These can appropriate standard of performance for their
As a contracting matter, it is also useful to range from the simple to the complex. respective responsibilities.
keep business and technical details somewhat
A simple governance structure would identify In some cases, a JDA is intended to be
separate from the other general terms and
principal points of contact from each party, exploratory or experimental, and so a general
conditions of an agreement.
make them responsible for overall coordination “reasonable efforts” standard is appropriate.
For these reasons, parties should consider of the JDA, and in some cases give them In these JDAs, the parties intend that each will
structuring the JDA as a master agreement authority to agree to adjustments in scope and work toward the shared goals and will make
with an initial “statement of work” that timelines that will not have a material impact specified personnel and resources available
contains business and technical details and a to the overall project or the costs borne by for the project, but they also acknowledge that
process for adding additional statements of either party. there may be delays or that stated goals may
work later if the parties agree. The statement of turn out to be impractical to achieve.
A more complex governance structure would
work can include details such as:
add one or more committees of executives to In other cases, the parties will want to have
• identification of key personnel for serve strategic governance, technical review, defined responsibilities with more firm
the project; and dispute-escalation functions. For these commitments. For example, if one party is
structures, the JDA should specify: essentially compensating the other to integrate
• technology, equipment, facilities, and other
resources to be contributed by each party; • roles, responsibilities, and authority of existing technologies and both parties have
each committee; confidence in the achievability of the outcome,
• development responsibilities and a more definite set of commitments and time
deliverables of each party; • the seniority-level of executives from each
schedules would be appropriate.
party that will serve on the committee;
• milestones to track progress;
• the number of persons from each party for 3.4 Subcontracting
• specifications and testing standards for Some projects require that a party engage
each committee;
work product to be developed; third-party subcontractors. For example,
• the means by which the committee specialized fabrication or testing services may
• anticipated timelines; and
makes decisions (e.g., majority vote or be needed for a planned product.
• compensation to be paid or cost- consensus); and
sharing details. Where subcontracting is permitted, the JDA
• a baseline for frequency of meetings of will generally make clear that each party is
In negotiations, a statement of work structure the committee. responsible for its subcontractors and also
makes it easier for business and technical should require that any subcontractor is
Regular reporting is another governance feature
personnel to focus on the items most relevant to bound by terms that are at least as protective
that is useful in some JDAs. Particularly where
their expertise and concerns, with advice from of the confidential information, technology,
the parties are doing substantial work separately
the legal team. and intellectual property rights of the other
from one another, they may want to include
To avoid unexpected changes to negotiated legal periodic progress reports as part of the JDA. party as the JDA itself. If the subcontractor
terms, the JDA should provide that if there is a will be developing intellectual property that is
Parties should be careful not to over-engineer important to the JDA’s end-results, then the
conflict between the terms set forth in the body
a governance structure in a way that adds party hiring the subcontractor should also be
of the JDA and a statement of work, the terms
excessive overhead to the collaboration, slows responsible for procuring sufficient rights from
set forth in the body of the JDA prevail. The
progress, or wastes executive time on matters its subcontractor.
parties may wish to allow the statement of work
that can be handled in the day-to-day operation
to control in limited cases where the parties In some cases, the parties will want approval
of the JDA.
have made clear their intention to vary from the over subcontractors (e.g., if the subcontractor
terms of the main body of the JDA. will have access to sensitive information or
technology or will need to be present at a
party’s facilities); in other cases approval is
not required.
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4. Intellectual Property
The provisions regarding intellectual property • Developed IP Under legal principles
rights are among the most important (and in the U.S. and many other jurisdictions,
highly-negotiated) ones in a JDA. Clearly- the default position is that a party will
drafted IP rights provisions help avoid later individually own the Developed IP that
disputes and ensure that each party gets it solely creates. If personnel from each
the benefit it expects from the JDA. Note party collaborate in developing IP, then
that in drafting a JDA it is useful to separate that IP may be jointly owned depending
and distinguish “technology”—inventions, on the rules of inventorship or authorship
software, works of authorship, designs, etc. for the underlying IP right (e.g., patents
and “IP rights”—patents, trade secret rights, or copyrights). These default rules can be
copyrights, etc. that apply to technology. In (and frequently are) changed by contract.
this primer, the technical distinction is not that Even if the parties intend to maintain
important, and so this primer generally refers ownership of IP that tracks the default legal
to both as “intellectual property” or “IP.” position, it is generally preferable to specify
the allocation of IP in the JDA itself. This
4.1 Ownership reduces the likelihood of misunderstandings
JDAs typically define two basic categories and disputes and also will help achieve
of intellectual property: (a) IP that each a consistent approach among different
party brings to the relationship and is jurisdictions and types of IP rights that may
either in existence at signing or developed be relevant to the JDA.
independently of the JDA (“Background IP”);
and (b) IP that one or both parties create as a The parties have very wide latitude to
result of the effort under the JDA (“Developed allocate ownership of IP in a JDA, and
IP” or “Foreground IP”). there are infinite variations that can be
created. However, a few basic structures
• Background IP Unless there is a specific repeat frequently in actual practice and are
business agreement to transfer ownership, described below.
each party to a JDA usually retains exclusive
ownership of all rights in its Background IP.
The parties may wish to identify certain
Background IP in the JDA, in order to
establish that particular items are owned
by one party or identify IP that will be
subject to a license. But for drafting
purposes it is generally best to define
Background IP as a category, with any
listed IP as nonexclusive examples.
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Allocation by inventorship
Example: ToyCo and AICo. can interact with individual members of a Figure 1 illustrates allocation of IP
The following sections include several household, learn from those interactions, and based on inventorship in the context of
illustrative figures based on the following spontaneously make the most appropriate this example:
highly-simplified example. ToyCo is a maker (and amusing) comments to each person it
of children’s toys, with a highly-successful regularly encounters. The parties are entering
line of remote-control robots with voice- into a JDA for this collaboration. In general,
recognition and other sensors and realistic- ToyCo wants to retain ownership and control Fig. 1: Ownership by Inventorship
sounding speech capabilities. ToyCo is looking of IP related to its toy design and sensor and
for its next big hit product and is interested speech capabilities, and AICo wants to retain
Toy IP
in partnering with AICo. AICo is a developer ownership and control of IP related to artificial
of artificial intelligence and machine learning intelligence and machine learning, which it eveloped and owned
D
plans to use for ToyCo and other customers. by ToyCo
software for applications in various industries.
The parties want to collaborate to develop a on its Background IP, in order to ensure that eveloped and owned
D
remote-control robot toy, based on ToyCo’s its future development is not blocked and that by AICo
these patents do not fall into the hands of the
latest design, that will incorporate a simplified
first party’s competitor.
version of AICo’s software so that the robot
AI / Machine Learning IP
The parties can agree that any Developed IP created as a result of the collaboration will be eveloped and owned
D
by ToyCo
allocated based on inventorship. This means that each party owns what its personnel
has developed. Allocation by inventorship is a fairly simple structure, and it also may be appealing eveloped and owned
D
because it seems fair to the parties—each party gets the benefit of its own work and creativity. by AICo
However, allocation by inventorship does not necessarily track the parties’ fundamental business
interests. It also does not account well for true collaboration between the parties, where items of
Developed IP more important to one party or the other would be jointly developed and therefore J ointly developed by both parties;
jointly owned. If, for example, one party provides most of the initial technology but the other party ownership as agreed
does most of the development work, the first party will own the Background IP and the second
party will own all of the Developed IP. The first party may point out that the development could not
have occurred without its initial contribution. The first party may also want to control any patents
relating to improvements other customers. on its Background IP, in order to ensure that its future
development is not blocked and that these patents do not fall into the hands of the first party’s
competitor.
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Another option is allocation by technology If one party will be doing substantial Figure 2 illustrates allocation of
category. The parties can identify in the development work in the other’s technology ownership in the example above
JDA categories that are core to each party’s category, that developing party may argue that based on technology category:
business. In the software field, for example, the it is unfair for the other to own the results of
categories could be technology that relates to its effort. Of course, there are any number of
an underlying operating system or middleware ways to balance the scale of benefits for each
layer on the one hand and technology that party. A party’s work may improve integration
relates to an end-user application on the other. of products or facilitate use and adoption of Fig. 2: Ownership by Technology Category
In the semiconductor field, the categories could that party’s own technology in the marketplace.
be technology related to semiconductor device And negotiation of compensation in the form of Toy IP
design on one hand and technology related to engineering fees or running royalties is always
manufacturing processes on the other. In this an option. Owned by ToyCo
model, each party would own Developed IP
When using this model, the parties must be
that falls within the category allocated to it in
very careful about defining the technology
the JDA.
categories, and the potential difficulty of
Because it is based on technology categories drawing these lines is a disadvantage of this
that are important to each party’s business, approach. Potential overlap between categories
this method of allocation is more likely to or gaps between categories can lead to AI / Machine Learning IP
correspond to the fundamental business confusion and disputes.
Owned by AICo
interests of the parties. In addition, this
approach consolidates ownership of related
items of Developed IP, even if it was developed
through collaboration.
Joint ownership
Hybrid models
4.2 Licensing possibly Background IP on which it depends.
In addition to allocating ownership of IP, In other cases, the parties may want to focus
parties to a JDA must consider what licenses to the JDA on development and defer discussions
both Background IP and Developed IP should of any commercialization license. It is often
be granted. There are a number of kinds of difficult to know in advance which party will
licenses that recur in JDAs. have leverage in license negotiations once the
development work is complete, and so each
First, if the parties will be collaborating in party should consider carefully whether or not
development efforts, each party will typically to defer this discussion.
grant the other a license to use the Background
IP that is furnished under the JDA. This license For each commercialization license, key terms
In real practice, many JDAs adopt hybrids Figure 3 illustrates a possible hybrid
will be limited to use for the collaborative to be negotiated include:
of the three models described above, with ownership model for the example above,
some Developed IP allocated by category and efforts under the JDA and will end when the • field of use, products, and services licensed;
with the addition of a “middle” category of
Developed IP outside of the core categories JDA (or an SOW) ends. Depending on the
technology that is related to integration of • scope (use, make, have made, sell, etc.);
allocated by inventorship, for example. circumstances, the parties may wish to have
device IP and manufacturing IP: a blanket license to Background IP that is
Two keys for success are maintaining clarity • sublicensing rights (if any);
made available or may wish to be very specific
about which Developed IP goes in which about which Background IP is licensed or not • royalties (if any) and related terms;
categories and keeping the agreement simple licensed. This Background IP license usually
enough that it can be effectively understood • exclusivity (if any), including scope,
does not include commercialization rights. duration and conditions (such as
and administered. The limited duration and scope of this kind
minimum royalties);
of license makes it easier for a party to grant,
but each party should also consider additional • duration;
Fig. 3: Potential Hybrid Model limitations and restrictions, including
• termination rights; and
confidentiality restrictions, that should apply
to Background IP. • transferability and effects on the license
Toy IP if there is a change of control of the
If a JDA provides for Developed IP to be
Owned by ToyCo transferred from one party to the other, licensee party.
or if one party will have sole ownership of
Developed IP that is jointly developed, then
Integration IP the parties may agree that the party that 4.3 Right of first refusal
does not own this Developed IP will have If Developed IP is allocated to one party or is
Owned by AICo and exclusively jointly owned, the parties may want to provide
licensed to ToyCo in specified a license. The scope of the license (e.g.,
for research and development only or also that the other has a right of first refusal, right
field.
for commercialization) will be negotiated to negotiate, or other preferential position
depending on the business circumstances. For if the other party desires to transfer or grant
example, in the toy robot example, one party exclusive rights under its interest in the
has a strong interest in ownership of all sensor Developed IP. The provision governing these
AI / Machine Learning IP
and speech-generation IP that is developed, rights should clearly define what constitutes a
Owned by AICo transfer opportunity that will give rise to the
but the parties may also agree that the other
party will have a license to use some of that IP right. It should also delineate a process for
that is not specific to the robot toy prodcut for party to exercise its rights or not. Any right of
Jointly developed and owned by category use in AI and machine-learning applications first refusal or similar right will make it more
generally. difficult for the owning party to dispose of the
Developed IP it owns, and so the owning party
In some JDAs, the parties will also agree will want to make the process, and its endpoint,
on licenses to cover commercialization of very clear.
Developed IP that results from the project and
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