Close-Up: Live Issue - Should agencies license their ideas?

Is it time for agencies to reassert their IP rights and move to a profit-sharing model?

It's a problem that has remained stubbornly resistant to a solution since the commission system virtually disappeared and creative and media went their separate ways.

How do agencies restore the value to creative ideas they always gave away for a pittance, knowing the real money was to be made in the placing of that work?

Payment by results has been only a partial success while procurement specialists demand more for less. Meanwhile, agencies' timidity and eagerness to win business often make them nervous about upsetting a new client by pinning down ownership of creative ideas.

Not to do so, however, is to risk having it all end in tears. Marina Palomba, the IPA's legal affairs director, says: 'We still see far too many cases where the absence of a contract has left all parties exposed and uncertain of their rights.'

Last week, the IPA published new guidelines on how agencies can protect their intellectual property rights. These give fresh impetus to the prospect of the so-called 'Hollywood' model.

Hamish Pringle, the IPA's director-general, doesn't claim a system under which agencies license their ideas to clients in exchange for a share in the profits is a panacea.