Reuse of Drawings 6

[dik]

I have a young engineer that is working on some solar panels, and the documents will be reused. I've advised her that I usually charge 100% for first project and 50% for the second use and 33% for the third and subsequent use, if no significant changes (what I usually do). She was going to use a fixed fee for all uses of the documents.

I've also suggested that she include the following in her drawing notes:

THE CONSTRUCTION DOCUMENTS ARE APPLICABLE ONLY FOR PREVIOUSLY AGREED WORK. THE ENGINEER MUST BE INFORMED OF THE WORK, IN WRITING, PRIOR TO COMMENCEMENT. ALL OTHER USE OF THE CONSTRUCTION DOCUMENTS CONSTITUTES COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT. THE WORK IS NON-NEGOTIABLE AND CANNOT BE USED BY THIRD PARTIES, UNLESS AGREED TO IN WRITING BY THE ENGINEER

and, that she should discuss this with her insurance agent.

Any Comments?

Thanks, Dik

 

[dik]

...and you keep your client happy.

Dik

 

[Sparweb]

'lots of duplication' and normally just a matter of doing a quick check of the foundation conditions...

I work with a completely different set of expectations, both in my office and from my customers.
If I want to bill for a bunch of new development, I would charge for "non-recurrent engineering" and that might bump up the first bill. And it might not be on the second bill, if I sold a second issue, to the same customer. Too often they come up with changes every time. In any case, the first bill would cover all costs at the first issue (hence the NRE recovered all on the first shot). I'm never sure that I can sell a second copy, so I don't often factor in the ump-teenth iteration into my price.

When it comes to marketing a product or doing manual labour that I expect to sell often, then yes, many costs should be amortized, as Agent666 points out. In a sense, the computers, measuring tools, desks and other costs of the engineering office are spread out as overhead on the hours of engineering work done, too. Drawings, approvals, stamped documents, etc... once these are created their value can remain fixed. I don't accept that my intellectual property is devalued each time I use it.

No one believes the theory except the one who developed it. Everyone believes the experiment except the one who ran it.
STF