Assigning Assets

--

Title

Assigning Assets

DRACC

0014

Category

Regulatory

Scope

Global

Authors

Leenaars, M.A.G.J.; Šuklje, M.

Date

January 2017

Copyright

The Commons Conservancy

This document is part of the DRACC series, see DRACC "Introduction to DRACC Series" for an explanation. You can reuse it under a "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International" license.

Assigning Assets

There are two reasons why a contributor would like to leave the full rights in their contribution to [The Commons Conservancy] -- a) because a Programme requires the transfer of assets; or b) due to the contributor's own desire to assign their rights to [The Commons Conservancy]. In both cases this document prescribes the procedure which is to be followed.

If a Programme requires intangible assets -- such as copyright, trade marks, patents, databases, integrated circuit layout design and the like -- to be assigned to [The Commons Conservancy], before a contributor contributes to the Programme, the contributors MUST sign a legal document for such transfer of such assets (see DRACC "Legal Document Whitelist") with [The Commons Conservancy].

Even if a Programme does not require such transfer, a contributor MAY still assign the intangible assets -- such as copyright, trade marks, patents, databases, integrated circuit layout design and the like -- in their contribution(s) to [The Commons Conservancy].

In both cases the following procedure MUST be followed:

Manual Procedure

  1. The contributor SHALL send electronically (for instance by email) to the Board of [The Commons Conservancy] a properly filled out and signed legal document (see DRACC "Legal Document Whitelist") needed for the asset transfer. Said legal document SHALL also state either a) which Programme(s) the assets SHOULD go to, or alternatively b) whether they SHALL go directly to [The Commons Conservancy] to be used by any Programme that might find them useful (see DRACC "Mapping Rights to Programmes").

  2. The Board of [The Commons Conservancy] SHALL ask all relevant Programmes that were listed in the previous step as Programmes the assets SHOULD go to, to decide whether they accept the contribution (see DRACC "Decision Handling Procedure").

  3. Unless there is a timely opposition from any of the relevant Programmes, the Board of [The Commons Conservancy] SHALL notify the contributor and Governing Bodies of the relevant Programmes that it accepts the donation of intangible assets and which Programmes MAY access these assets. If any of the Governing Bodies objects, the assets SHALL not be shared only with that specific Programme.

Third-Party Materials

If a contribution contains any third-party material(s) (e.g. libraries or snippets taken elsewhere), the contributor SHALL for each material:

  1. ensure that they have the necessary rights to contribute said material to the Programme(s) and that its licences are compatible with the outbound licence of the Programme(s); and

  2. enter it into the Bill of Third-Party Materials, which MUST be deposited with [The Commons Conservancy].

[The Commons Conservancy] SHALL keep an archive of all herein mentioned documents.