Who owns the Intellectual Properties developed by SSM? Are they in the Public Domain?
We refrain from using the term “Public Domain” to describe our data. Due to the difficulty in gathering enough capital for mass production (as mentioned above) as manufacturers always look for exclusive rights to their products (because of the high capital costs), we will retain the rights to all intellectual properties at this time. Nonetheless, our design data are accessible to the public. We encourage people with relevant backgrounds to review our design data and to contribute their knowledge to our designs (we are therefore “Open” as in “Open Design”). All intellectual properties (IP), including copyrights, trademarks, service marks and patents, are owned or co-owned by SSM. Creating IP Using SSM’s data and/or funding or based on an existing SSM’s IP generally requires that the newly created IP to be placed under the same SSM-OSGV Open Design License Agreement. Except when a third party is developing a design based on our designated interface points (interface control documents / s
