NESTA offers hassle-free opportunity to innovate with digital media suppliers

30/11/2009

"This project, coupled with the release of public linked data could help the UK develop some new world-class online experiences"

The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) is calling for public sector organisations planning to commission a digital media project in early 2010 to get involved in a cutting-edge pilot project.

Organisations commissioning a project, such as a new website, animation, mobile application, software development or a new piece of technology, are invited to work with NESTA on a project which will test the economic and social impact of digital media companies retaining some intellectual property (IP) rights created from the work they provide.

NESTA has released a range of simple public commissioning models that include full ownership by the public commissioner, new ways of producer licensing and a way to encourage open source projects. NESTA is also developing simplified contract templates to help public organisations commissioning under the frameworks.

Jon Kingsbury, Director at NESTA says: "Smarter public procurement of digital media may be a good way of helping the digital media industry as well as encouraging better proposals from suppliers. We'd like to understand what value is created for both the citizen and producers by testing some of these frameworks with real projects. This project, coupled with the release of public linked data could help the UK develop some new world-class online experiences"

In its Digital Britain report, the government charged NESTA with addressing this issue by creating and testing a simplified IP rights framework for publicly procured digital media projects. NESTA today releases six new frameworks and it is calling for public sector organisations to use their next digital media project to test them. The test would not affect the work delivered by the digital media agency, focussing only on how well the frameworks worked and how the intellectual property is used after the work has been delivered.

The aim of the IP framework pilot is to test whether allowing digital media businesses to keep hold of some or all of their intellectual property from this work would open up further revenue streams for the digital business, whilst simplifying the contractual process and allowing more flexibility for further development for commissioning organizations. 

The IP frameworks do not apply to public sector open data and span a range of IP options. To see all six frameworks visit: http://www.nesta.org.uk/library/documents/Public-ipr-frameworks.pdf

To get involved with the pilot, apply online before Friday 18 December 2009.

Contact:

For more information please contact Catherine Anderson on Catherine.anderson@nesta.org.uk or 0207 438 2609

Notes to editors:

About NESTA
NESTA is the largest independent endowment in the UK. Its mission is to support innovation to drive economic recovery and solve some of the UK's major social challenges.

NESTA is a world leader in its field and is in a unique position to support and promote innovation through a blend of practical programmes, policy and research and investment in early-stage companies.

About the IP Frameworks
NESTA will be launching a new pilot which looks into testing a set of new IP rights frameworks for publicly procured digital media.  The frameworks are designed to offer more flexibility to both digital media companies and public organisations.  The pilot will also seek to explore whether businesses who keep hold of their intellectual property can make money from it.

Summary of the frameworks:

Framework 1 - The Public Organisation acquires by assignment all rights in material produced under the terms of the commissioning arrangements.  The public organisation makes the materials available for re-use and development for all, under standard, non-exclusive terms.

Framework 2 - The Supplier owns and retains all rights to any new stand alone IP they bring to the Public Organisation; the Public Organisation takes an exclusive licence only. Any publicly-owned data will be made available for licence under Crown Copyright.

Framework 3 - The Supplier licences their existing third party rights to the Public Organisation on a non-exclusive basis.

Framework 4 - The Supplier licences their off the shelf technology product to the Public Organisation on a non-exclusive basis.

Framework 5 - The Supplier licences their off the shelf technology product to the Public Organisation on a non-exclusive basis, but the Public Organisation owns (or may take a non-exclusive licence in) the bespoke development which it specifies and pays for.

Framework 6 - The Public Organisation commissions bespoke technology with the explicit goal of making it open-source - i.e. with non-existent copyright restrictions.