The Steamboating Forum

There are whole businesses formed on selling second hand books, one of the most famous is Foyles in Charing Cross Road, London. Robert Humm, another.

Folks,

If the boiler designer gives the purchaser a licence to build one boiler and says that licence is not transferable there is plenty of case law in the UK to back him up.

johngriffiths wrote:Folks,

If the boiler designer gives the purchaser a licence to build one boiler and says that licence is not transferable there is plenty of case law in the UK to back him up.

That is a licensing agreement. A written licence signed by the buyer and seller. This is the only way to make a "One use" agreement work.

What's being discussed here is "intellectual property". When the owner of a design or intellectual property sells copies of his or her work, they retain all rights to it and can share it any manner they wish. Typically when "plans" are sold, the purchaser is not buying the design nor the rights to it, only permission to use that design how the property owner sees fit and per their guidelines of some written agreement. Plans or drawings could even be sold that do not permit the manufacture of the design, only to display or explain a concept.

Typically, when a set of plans are purchased, this grants the purchaser the right to build as many as they wish, under no circumstance should the purchaser/end user share or distribute the "plans" with others without the original owners' written consent. But it can be any type of agreement. If it is not stipulated at the time of purchase, then the aforementioned should be assumed as that is the typical agreement.

-Ron

Well put Ron, for a US view on the subject see:-
http://www.spoor.com/home/index.php?ipkArticleID=406

John