Innovation Labs

A few people have asked what it means when we say that Labs is IP Neutral. It's one of the first things you see in the 'what is labs' presentation, and it's one of the things that spawns the most questions. So as the deadline for applications draws nearer I thought I'd outline what we mean.

IP neutrality is not something you come across an awful lot at big corporations - mainly because most systems for dredging for ideas are just that - a way for the corporation to get their hands on shed loads of ideas and then play with them - they don't care about you and they certainly don't want anything other than the idea from you. That, however is not what Labs is about.

Labs is a way for the BBC to work with you at a very early stage in your idea development - essentially paying for and supporting R&D within the UK Indie sector. In effect we're taking a gamble that by working with you at a very early stage, when the idea is ready for the big time you'll work with us to make that happen - that however is not guaranteed. When you submit an idea to Labs your giving us a very rough outline that we can use to judge if we'd like to spend that money with you, and if we think it has potential that could be revealed in more detail by attending a five day rapid prototyping lab.

It's at that point that we ask you to sign a contract with us - not before, not when you're submitting your ideas, but once we pay you £5000 to come to the Lab itself. The contract we ask you to sign doesn't assign us any of your IP - but what it does do is give the BBC a first refusal on the idea for a period of three months. If during that three months we've not moved the idea along as you'd like, or if we feel it's not going to work with the BBC you've lost nothing. The IP remains with you and you're free to take that idea to other people - except you now have an idea that's had at least five days intensive work with peers and mentors alike.

If you have any questions about IP then drop us a line.