"Companies ring us with queries, but we know of no one that they can turn to," says Rolf Rising at ISA.
The legal issues that companies feel unsure about are often of a contractual nature. They may concern the amount of support included in the contract or how to deal with possible bugs. The copyright issue is also a major stumbling block. For instance, questions like "what happens if parts of the design are illegally copied?".
Large customers hesitate to buy design blocks from small unknown players even if their products are good. Therefore, the threshold into the market becomes unnecessarily high for many new companies. Another problem is that IP commerce, lacking clear laws, easily becomes engrossed in time consuming contractual issues. Currently, Internet-based IP markets make both buyers and vendors sign detailed agreements.
Gittan Cedervall