Collaborative design process for a design team, outside suppliers, and outside manufacturers
First Claim
1. A collaborative design process for a design team that generates an incomplete design for a project, outside suppliers that supply components for the project, and outside manufacturers that manufacturer the complete design for the project, comprising the steps of:
- storing an incomplete design generated by the design team within a secure network;
upon the request of a first outside supplier, presenting terms of an intellectual property agreement to the first outside supplier and, upon acceptance of the terms by the first outside supplier, providing access to the incomplete design over the secure network and facilitating comments from the first outside supplier on the incomplete design;
upon the request of a second outside supplier, presenting terms of an intellectual property agreement to the second outside supplier and, upon acceptance of the terms by the second outside supplier, providing access to the incomplete design over the secure network and facilitating comments from the second outside supplier on the incomplete design;
storing a complete design generated by the design team within the secure network;
upon the request by a first outside manufacturer, presenting terms of an intellectual property agreement to the first outside manufacturer and, upon acceptance of the terms by the first outside manufacturer, providing access to the complete design over the secure network;
upon the request by a second outside manufacturer, presenting terms of an intellectual property agreement to the second outside manufacturer and, upon acceptance of the terms by the second outside manufacturer, providing access to the complete design over the secure network; and
facilitating use of the complete design by at least one of the outside manufacturers and, upon use of the complete design by one of the outside manufacturers, receiving payment from the outside manufacturer.
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Abstract
In a first embodiment, the invention includes a collaborative design process for a design team that generates an incomplete design for a project, outside suppliers that supply components for the project, and outside manufacturers that manufacturer the complete design for the project. The process includes storing an incomplete design generated by the design team within a secure network; providing access to the incomplete design over the secure network and facilitating comments from outside suppliers on the incomplete design; storing a complete design generated by the design team within the secure network; providing access to the complete design to the outside manufacturers over the secure network; and facilitating use of the complete design by at least one of the outside manufacturers. In a second embodiment, the invention includes a method of managing several collaborative design processes within the same secure network.
46 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A collaborative design process for a design team that generates an incomplete design for a project, outside suppliers that supply components for the project, and outside manufacturers that manufacturer the complete design for the project, comprising the steps of:
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storing an incomplete design generated by the design team within a secure network;
upon the request of a first outside supplier, presenting terms of an intellectual property agreement to the first outside supplier and, upon acceptance of the terms by the first outside supplier, providing access to the incomplete design over the secure network and facilitating comments from the first outside supplier on the incomplete design;
upon the request of a second outside supplier, presenting terms of an intellectual property agreement to the second outside supplier and, upon acceptance of the terms by the second outside supplier, providing access to the incomplete design over the secure network and facilitating comments from the second outside supplier on the incomplete design;
storing a complete design generated by the design team within the secure network;
upon the request by a first outside manufacturer, presenting terms of an intellectual property agreement to the first outside manufacturer and, upon acceptance of the terms by the first outside manufacturer, providing access to the complete design over the secure network;
upon the request by a second outside manufacturer, presenting terms of an intellectual property agreement to the second outside manufacturer and, upon acceptance of the terms by the second outside manufacturer, providing access to the complete design over the secure network; and
facilitating use of the complete design by at least one of the outside manufacturers and, upon use of the complete design by one of the outside manufacturers, receiving payment from the outside manufacturer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A method of managing several collaborative design processes that each involves a design team that generates an incomplete design for a project, outside suppliers that supply components for the project, and outside manufacturers that manufacturer the complete design for the project, comprising the steps of:
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storing a first incomplete design generated by a first design team within a secure network and storing a second incomplete design generated by a second design team within the secure network;
upon the request of a first outside supplier, presenting terms of an intellectual property agreement to the first outside supplier and, upon acceptance of the terms by the first outside supplier, providing access to the incomplete designs over the secure network and facilitating comments from the first outside supplier on the incomplete designs;
upon the request of a second outside supplier, presenting terms of an intellectual property agreement to the second outside supplier and, upon acceptance of the terms by the second outside supplier, providing access to the incomplete designs over the secure network and facilitating comments from the second outside supplier on the incomplete designs;
storing a first complete design generated by the first design team within the secure network and storing a second complete design generated by the second design team within the secure network;
upon the request by a first outside manufacturer, presenting terms of an intellectual property agreement to the first outside manufacturer and, upon acceptance of the terms by the first outside manufacturer, providing access to the complete designs over the secure network;
upon the request by a second outside manufacturer, presenting terms of an intellectual property agreement to the second outside manufacturer and, upon acceptance of the terms by the second outside manufacturer, providing access to the complete designs over the secure network; and
facilitating use of at least one of the complete designs by at least one of the outside manufacturers and, upon use of at least one of the complete designs by one of the outside manufacturers, receiving payment from the outside manufacturer. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification