Product personalization by customers? Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions
21.10.2015Company: Amcham
Many manufacturers today oblige their customers by offering the possibility to “personalize” their products. Popularity of strong international brands is now a history; today’s customers want to have originals that express their unique personality, whether it is clothes or tailor-mixed cereals.
For a “unique piece”, the manufacturer may charge a solid extra price and at the same time it is obtaining new ideas for extending its offer to customers. It does not, however, usually consider the increased risk that the customer may share copyright to the final work as a result of his involvement in the creative process, which substantially impacts any further commercial use of the co-created product.
If the customer becomes a co-author of a (specific) work, he is entitled to take part in decision-making on the product’s further use, including its publication and offer to other customers. This may be avoided, to a major extent, by executing an agreement under which the customer waives in the maximum possible extent its copyright-based claims and grants to the manufacturer any and all consents and licenses necessary for the further use of the respective work. With such an agreement in hand, the producer will avoid legal problems and also potential misunderstandings that could adversely affect the future relationship with the customer/co-author, as well as other customers.
Authors: Lenka Koláriková, Associate a Ondřej Antoš, Legal Trainee, Squire Patton Boggs
