The Need for the Agreement

A Teaming Agreement can speed the path to government contracts:

• The availability of applicable Intellectual Property (IP) owned by members will represent a powerful suggestion that sole-source procurements be justified based on that IP.


• The agreements collectively represent protection for all of the team members and the customer from losing a critical component of the system because of the actions of an errant team member [that can arise for many reasons including sale of a business, bankruptcy, etc.]. It is important that the applicable IP owned by each team member be available to the project for the duration of the product life. [A member withholding IP previously promised could be disastrous to the schedule and future revenues of the business, and the fortunes of all of the other members.]


• A document is needed to define the relationships among the teaming members and the responsibilities to the team agreed to by each member.

Therefore, it is important that every candidate member enters into this agreement with FITERAD (the collector of all such agreements, and the pending patent of the RAIN System).

Key Provisions- re IP

Because of the complexities with all of the disparate IP involved in the project it is not practicable to structure definitive licensing agreements prior to approaching potential customers for funding. Additionally, the customers will very likely have their own requirements to be placed on these agreements.

However, the teaming agreement includes the following components:

• Certification that the candidate member and FITERAD will negotiate a reasonable schedule of fees/royalties for proprietary IP (i.e., IP not in the public domain) that the member:
  1. owns, and
  2. offers the project, and
  3. uses in the team's proposals to the U.S. government.


• That the candidate member grants an exclusive license to use the IP for the aerial firefighting application and will not offer said IP to another organization (e.g., a competitor) for that express purpose;


• Certification that the candidate member will negotiate in good faith the provisions of a definitive licensing agreement that will be acceptable to the U.S. Government and/or any other "customer" or donor that would fund the development of the RAIN System.