On Tue, May 1, 2012 at 6:03 PM, David Miller <dmiller@tiggee.com> wrote:
From an accounting perspective, every R&D effort that I have seen or been a part of was not billed to any customer. R&D has always, in my experience, been an internal charge against a company's own profits.
Hi David, That's called "internal" research and development or "IR&D". It's distinguished from research and prototyping as an exploratory effort under contract to a customer. For example, all grants under organizations like NSF, ONR or DARPA the latter type of R&D. They want to know if something is possible so they pay knowledge domain experts to find out. Or more commonly, the experts submit a proposal that says, "We think this is possible. It would be very good for you if it is. Won't you please pay us to find out?"
As to hourly software development, I have never seen or been a part of a software development effort where the final work product was not owned by the entity paying for the hourly development. The contract software developer can't sell the same software twice because they don't own it to sell it twice.
That depends on the contract. By law, the folks who wrote the software (or the company who paid their salaries) own it. By law, contract != salary. Some contracts specify that the copyrights and other IP will be signed over upon completion. With most of the contracts I've worked, the customer doesn't get the copyright, but I make no claim that's typical. Regards, Bill Herrin -- William D. Herrin ................ herrin@dirtside.com bill@herrin.us 3005 Crane Dr. ...................... Web: <http://bill.herrin.us/> Falls Church, VA 22042-3004