Concerns about DCC owning ideas it funds
A LEADING marketing and digital agency will not take part in the Great Dunedin Brainstorm because it does not believe the council should claim ownership of proposals put forward.
The Dunedin City Council and other major city stakeholders such as the University of Otago and Ngai Tahu are holding an ideas workshop next week aimed at solving social and economic problems worsened by Covid19.
The best ideas from the workshop will be presented to the council and may get funding from the $500,000 Covid19 fund.
Marketing and digital transformation agency Firebrand’s ‘‘mission commander’’ Lynda Henderson was a big supporter of the workshop idea and had two communitybased proposals ready to go.
But when she read the terms and conditions for entering the event she pulled her entries back.
‘‘This seemed like an opportunity to connect things, both with people and with funding, so looking at the terms and conditions I then noticed in the IP [intellectual property] that it meant relinquishing all ownership of that.’’
People owning and delivering their ideas was likely to be more successful than ‘‘being another project’’ at the council.
The clause in the terms and conditions for entry asked participants to agree to ‘‘assist the DCC in registering such rights of ownership and Intellectual Property rights if required by the DCC’’.
The council was approached by Ms Henderson and two other parties with concerns about the IP clause.
It then amended the terms and conditions to allow participants to use the IP and that it may review requests for the ownership to be assigned to a person.
Ms Henderson said that still meant the council had control of the IP.
‘‘But . . . you’d still relinquish the IP and then if they deemed it appropriate then they’d move it back to you. But you’re still giving it up and I think that’s a mistake.’’
One of her main concerns was what would happen to a project, initially approved and funded by the council, when the funding ran out.
‘‘If the DCC chooses not to continue with it, does it then cease to exist and then a great community initiative drops away for a lack of funding?
‘‘Whereas if it was done the other way around where there’s still that ownership . . . the desire would then be to continue it by finding other funding sources or helping it selfgenerate.’’
She said keeping the ownership with the creator worked with the themes the Great Dunedin Brainstorm wanted to push — getting people into jobs in a postCovid19 world, raising hope and social connectedness.
In response, Enterprise Dunedin director John Christie said the IP clause was ‘‘standard business practice for these types of events’’.
Asked whether the council would consider allowing participants to keep the IP, Mr Christie did not answer, instead stating there was no ‘‘assumption that any project will be implemented by council staff’’.
‘‘The Great Dunedin Brainstorm is a collaborative event to engage the community on ideas to support Dunedin socially and economically as a result of Covid19.
‘‘Ideas will be workshopped and developed by all participants as part of teams to come up with a final, viable solution during the day. This will then be pitched to a panel of judges.’’
The Great Dunedin Brainstorm received 52 expressions of interest. It will be held on Friday and Saturday next week.