Why Its Important to Own Your IP -- Even When It's Not Obvious
Law.com is reporting today that "Wal-Mart's internal meetings are on display in three decades worth of videos made by a Kansas production company scrambling to stay in business after Wal-Mart stopped using the firm. In response to losing its biggest customer, Flagler Productions has opened its archive, for a fee, to those seeking clips of unguarded moments, including a scene of male managers parading in drag at an executive meeting. Much of the interest in the candid videos is coming from plaintiffs lawyers pursuing cases against Wal-Mart." Read the rest.
What I found most interesting for the purposes of this blog was that the parties never signed an agreement (in 30 years). I'm sure no one ever thought there would be an aftermarket for these videos, but in today's day and age, there is a market for just about everything. This is a good example of why it makes sense to use care with respect to owning you intellectual property -- even for things that aren't customer facing. My experience is that many companies will use less care when they are hiring outside videographers, photographers, free-lance writers, etc. to produce corporate training films, recordings for archives, etc.
