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| How does Chelsfield charge for its services? |
| For small, one-off contracts, we would usually agree a simple fee,
for the larger project work, fees are
usually paid in increments. We may agree that, part, if not all, of our remuneration may be through a split in subsequent sales of a given product.
If royalty, or cross royalty, payments are appropriate, then these may be time or value limited as agreed between us. Complex projects will, in addition, usually require financial break-points of some description. |
|
| Up to what size of project can Chelsfield handle? |
| We have successfully handled international design projects spanning design teams operating simultaneously in three countries with a two year development budget of
over five million pounds sterling. |
|
| We have a very small project, would Chelsfield still be willing
to help us? |
| Yes, we welcome any size of project.
What we are asked to do varies
enormously so for all projects we only agree to participate if we are able to: 1).
bring the required resources to bear at the time you require,
2). satisfy ourselves that we can do the work
against an agreed plan and time scales and, 3). agree what fees are to paid and when. |
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| We don't wish to give full project visibility to Chelsfield, is that
a problem? |
| We fully understand that maintaining your confidentiality is a prime issue.
We will undertake component design work in which we
are wholly or partially blind as to the overall project
objectives. However, we would need to be sure that any working specification was
detailed enough for us to proceed. In addition, we may provide you with a list of project areas in which we already have existing IPR. If it happens that one of these areas falls within the scope of your project then, we may decline to proceed with you in this case. |
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| Who owns IPR generated as a direct result of our
software contract with Chelsfield? |
| If it seems likely that IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) will be generated from any particular project, then we always attempt to agree ownership in advance of any contract. Of course this may be difficult because IPR
sometimes accrues as a result of discovery or novel application,
unforeseen at the start of the project.
We would be happy to negotiate securing
an agreed split in respect of any IPR
generated outside the scope of the immediate project. |
|
| If we commission software, can we contract Chelsfield to keep it up to date? |
| In some cases Chelsfield could agree a rolling maintenance contract with you or involve third parties to ensure software or firmware is maintained.
In other cases, the source code and technology to self-maintain the software might be grafted into your own organisation. This may be the preferred option if the software is destined for internal use. |
