Property of TMs - who's the owner of the TM once a project has been translated and delivered? The translator or the customer?

When a business relationship is regulated by an NDA, and the business relationship ends, the customer asks to delete all exchanged reserved information, does this include the TMs? Who's the owner of the TMs? The translator has the right to keep and use the TMs created during the relationship?

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    Often a thorny area and I am probably not the right person to answer this... but seeing as nobody has I'll kick it off and maybe others will have an opinion?

    I think that the right to retain and use TMs after a business relationship ends under an NDA is not universally guaranteed and most likely hinges on the specific details of the contractual agreement between the translator and the client. I think you need to have clear agreements concerning TMs from the outset to avoid misunderstandings or legal complications at the end of a business relationship.

    I think it's probably also complicated because some of what you did for your client may have come from your own TMs anyway and your client can hardly expect you to delete that.  Perhaps the safest approach is always to work with a Project TM and only update your Main TM once you are sure it's ok for you to merge the new content you translated with the asset you already own.

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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