Protect intellectual property

- If you have proprietary methods and materials,…you need to protect them.…Clearly specify in the contract who owns what…after the project.…Most contracts state that work you do on a consulting…engagement is work made for hire, in which case the client…owns all of it once the project is done.…Know how to keep your intellectual property from falling…victim to being taken because it's considered work product.…You can designate your methods as pre-existing content…and stipulate that you retain ownership…of it after the project.…

An exception will be if you make work product that contains…the pre-existing content.…The client will want a royalty-free right to continue…using it as part of the work product you delivered.…Even if you retain ownership, beware of terms like…perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free rights to reuse…and redistribute your pre-existing content.…Some contracts are going to have that language in them.…We had one client where we were licensing…them one of our classes.…

We said they could teach the class within a specific…