Following a recent Request For Proposals (RFP) from the General Insurance Association of Malaysia aka Persatuan Insurans Am Malaysia (PIAM) and the Malaysian Takaful Association (MTA), the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia (4As) would like to explicitly state its dissatisfaction with the demand by PIAM and MTA for the ownership and retention of Agencies’ intellectual property.
PIAM and MTA recently issued an RFP for Advertising Agencies to submit their proposals for a consumer education campaign on the “Phased Liberalisation of Motor and Fire Tariffs”.
Within the RFP documentation is a clause as follows:
Clause 2.14- “All supporting materials and other documentation submitted with the response will become the property of the Associations unless otherwise requested by the proposers at the time of submission.”
Unless otherwise requested in writing and objected to by the Agency before the proposals are submitted, PIAM and the MTA through this clause are unethically demanding for ownership and retention of intellectual property described in an Agency’s pitch proposals regardless of whether the Agency is selected or not.
All ideas, concepts, strategies, trademarks, and materials that an Advertising Agency presents or provides to an Advertiser in an RFP are provided for the sole purpose of allowing the Advertiser to determine whether to engage the Agency’s ongoing services.
No 4As Agencies responded to the invitation.
4As member Agencies have and will continue to decline pitch invitations which contain conditions and clauses similar to the above.
On 9 August, 29 August, and again on 26 October, the 4As appealed via correspondence that PIAM and MTA remove Clause 2.14 from their future RFP/pitch documents directed at Advertising Agencies. However, there has been no response from PIAM and MTA.
Clause 2.14 is oppressive and highly prejudicial to Agencies who are unsuccessful as they would not in any future bid or project rely on their intellectual property rights. The inclusion of Clause 2.14 by the PIAM and MTA is especially disappointing given the 4As repeated calls for Advertisers to remove unfair and unethical intellectual property retention clauses from procurement documents. It is tantamount to a demand for free ideas, contradicting core business principles and global norms of business dealings with the creative industry.
The 4As advice to Agencies is to not participate in tenders and pitches which contain similar unethical clauses. The 4As recommends that Agencies retain ownership of all ideas, plans, and work product unless the Advertiser is prepared to pay the Agency fairly for the rights.
The 4As is always ready to provide assistance, and have developed a best practice guide relating to ownership of Agency developed intellectual property which is readily available on the 4As website.