Examination of Witnesses (Questions 80-83)
DAME PAULINE
NEVILLE-JONES,
SIR JOHN
CHISHOLM AND
MR GLENN
YOUNGKIN
TUESDAY 21 JANUARY 2003
80. I meant that the other way round, what IP
do you have which you claim is yours where former DERA Royal Aircraft
establishment partners feel it is not yours to exploit but remains
theirs, and Rolls Royce is one?
(Sir John Chisholm) As you know, Mr Howarth, whenever
this is raised I always say, please come and talk to us about
it, put it on record, let us know, let us investigate it. To date
only one company has ever approached us with ten items that have
been investigated and dealt with. There is another very large
company, which you have just mentioned, who I believe have approached
the Ministry of Defence and they have yet to approach us.
(Dame Pauline Neville-Jones) It is the MoD who take
the decision.
81. The Ministry of Defence makes the decision.
You have given me these assurances in the past, Sir John, but
these suggestions do still persist and we have received a submission
from the SBAC which suggests this is a still a live issue. If
there is no resolution in advance of this deal being done and
you move into the private sector and subsequently it is found
that the intellectual property you claim is yours is not and it
belongs to another company who is going to make that decision
and who is going to compensate the company? You. There is going
to be a tug-of-war between you and the MoD.
(Sir John Chisholm) What we are talking about here
is essentially data. We have an exact audit trail through the
RASP process so all of it signed off by the Ministry of Defence
as us having it for the purposes of their, that is the Ministry
of Defence's own purposes. Under no circumstances shall we hold
anybody else's intellectual property for our own use, for use
outside of the Ministry of Defence. We have this exact audit trail.
Companies are absolutely at liberty, indeed I encourage them,
if they believe that the Ministry of Defence have properly given
us permission to use that data for Ministry of Defence purposes,
they are absolutely at liberty to challenge that on a case-by-case
point and there is a process for dealing with that. That has only
happened in relation to one company as far as QinetiQ activity
is concerned. I believe another company have approached the Ministry
of Defence.
Chairman
82. We have a couple more questions, perhaps
we can write to you because Dr Moonie is banging on the door outside
and we do not want to keep him any longer. Thank you very much.
I regret to say I hope all goes well with the company.
(Dame Pauline Neville-Jones) Thank you very much.
83. Stay British. I hope that the decision made
by the Government turns out to be the right one. We shall be watching.
(Dame Pauline Neville-Jones) Thank you for your good
wishes.
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