Where possible, a fixed-price quotation is given for a job. If that is not practical due to the job being large, ill-defined or open-ended, it is usually desirable to split the project into a number of stages, such that each stage can be the subject of a fixed-price quotation. In such cases the first stage will normally be a feasibility or design study.
Giastar takes confidentiality agreements seriously. In some cases this means never divulging the identity of a client or the existence of a project. Regardless of agreements, we do not identify clients in any publicity material.
When it is desirable or necessary to use subcontractors in a project (e.g. for mechanical design or manufacturing, PCB assembly etc), this is only done with the prior knowledge and approval of the client. In such cases subcontractors only receive the minimum information necessary to do the work. In the case of highly confidential projects, any subcontracted work is split between subcontractors in such a way that no single subcontractor has enough information to identify the project or client.
(It is worth mentioning that some potential clients are wary of using external designers like Giastar, in the belief that confidentiality may be compromised. In fact the reverse is the case: "permanent" employees frequently have no inhibitions about gossiping about previous employers, whereas our commitment to confidentiality extends beyond the lifetime of the contract.)
Different clients have different policies regarding IPR (intellectual property rights), and these are accommodated where possible.
It is, however, important that a client realises the implications of insisting on exclusive copyright to all deliverables: this makes it impossible to draw on Giastar's extensive collection of hardware designs and software libraries - everything must be done "from scratch", and this inevitably affects the cost and timescale. While this makes sense for products that are to be produced in quantity, a more pragmatic, and lower-cost, arrangement for low-volume batches or one-offs is for Giastar to grant a non-exclusive license (which is normally royalty-free) for use of background IPR (i.e. pre-existing work owned by Giastar).
We may in some circumstances be willing to discount the price of a project in return for retaining copyright to agreed portions of the work done specifically for that project, granting a royalty-free non-exclusive license as above. Of course, this will only be offered if the work is sufficiently generic for the IPR to be useful to us.
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